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NFL rules hurting game

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NFL rules hurting game

Here comes the boom. Well, maybe not much longer in the National Football League (NFL).

With the league cracking down on hits to the head, and seemingly hard hits in general, the violent game of football is turning into a game of touch.

Well, not quite that far, but we are heading in that direction.

Sometimes it seems like big, legal collisions in the NFL between defensive backs and wide receivers result in yellow penalty flags being thrown from referees’ pockets.

It felt like every game this past season involved a questionable unnecessary roughness, roughing the passer, or helmet-to-helmet penalty.

Every time a safety crushed a wide receiver and was penalized for an illegal hit, I wondered how much of a monetary punishment the NFL was going to deliver to that player. I don’t think that is what the league is about.

I am sure a lot of former NFL players disagree with the rules that are currently in place to protect mostly offensive players. I do not see how a Lawrence Taylor or Mike Singletary would even play in today’s league. It’s just that different.

But let’s look at it from the NFL’s perspective.

I think it’s safe to say that one of its first priorities or maybe the first priority of the NFL is player safety, two words that have been thrown around a lot the last couple of years.

The NFL and its fans are concerned about concussions and the long term effects of multiple concussions over a player’s career. Therefore, the league feels it needs to protect its players by enforcing rules and tough consequences for breaking those rules.

But just as citizens break laws, players will break rules. Sometimes they do not even intentionally break them.

I am tired of seeing penalty flags for helmet-to-helmet hits in cases in which a receiver will lower his head at the last second after catching a pass and the defender will smack the receiver in the head.

There are just few other options that the defender can take at that point.

The play happens so fast that he can’t just think to himself so quickly that because the receiver lowered his head, he has to also avoid a helmet-to-helmet penalty. That is just not realistic.

I am sure a receiver would much rather get hit in the head and suffer a concussion than to get hit in the knee and tear an ACL.

The NFL can only create so many rules before it starts to completely revolutionize the game.

It’s a violent game and that is why people enjoy it.

Sure, fans like the fluid rhythm of a Peyton Manning-led offense maneuver the football down the field. But there is also that hard-hitting element of the game that people are attracted to.

These players are grown men and are paid enough to take some risks on the field. With high reward, comes high risk, and that is the mentality the league needs to have.

Unfortunately, the fines will continue to be handed down to defensive players for illegal hits, which is why I recommend youngsters work on their punting game.

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