The NFL is getting its indicators crossed about participant safety. Fans, in addition to the fellows on the sector, don’t like seeing carnage as a lot as the subsequent battle vet. If you’re of the notion that accidents aren’t the worst a part of soccer (then, boy, do I’ve a slideshow for you), but additionally you’d be within the minority. It sucks seeing a bodily specimen writhe on the bottom in agony, surrounded by 100-plus friends who know the sensation, and tens of 1000’s of spectators, in addition to thousands and thousands of viewers, merely hoping for one of the best.
However, the distinction between followers and gamers and the league with regards to safety is the previous two teams know it is a violent recreation, and readily acknowledge the inherent dangers of placing on pads.
The NFL? It appears to consider all hazard can, and may, be eradicated from the game. Case and level is its latest enterprise: The “hip-drop tackle.” Described as a cousin of the horse-collar deal with, it’s when a defender, usually coming on the ball provider from behind and at an angle, grabs his prey across the waist and makes use of that momentum to swing the ball-carrier to the bottom. That swing drops the runner’s hip and the accidents come when the defender falls on the plant leg, trapping it whereas the tackler twists the ball-carrier’s physique, however not his ankle or leg, to the bottom.
“It is an unforgiving behavior and one that we need to try to define and get out of the game,” mentioned Jeff Miller, government vp of communications, public affairs, and coverage for the NFL.
“The defender’s encircling, tackling the runner, and then swinging their weight and falling on the side of their other leg, which is their ankle or their knee,” mentioned Rich McKay, NFL competitors committee chair. “You can see what they do, because it can be a smaller man against a bigger man, and they’re trying to get the person down. That’s the object of the game.
“But when they do it, the runner becomes defenseless.”
There’s a lot nonsense right here, I merely hope to maintain your consideration spans lengthy sufficient to debunk all of it.
First, a hip-drop deal with just isn’t a cousin of the horse-collar deal with, as a result of a horse collar is a cousin of the face masks. Latching on to a bit of an opponent’s uniform like a deal with and wrenching on it to tear them to the bottom is lots completely different than grabbing a man by the hips and swinging him down.
I believed you have been purported to see what you hit, wrap up, and drive by means of the deal with? What are they purported to do now? Wrap up, however attempt to maintain up the ball-carrier on the similar time? It doesn’t make any sense.
I do know the hip-drop no matter is how Patrick Mahomes and Tony Pollard received damage within the playoffs final 12 months, but it surely’s not “unforgiving behavior.” It’s soccer and ankles get snapped and twisted when people posing as demigods launch themselves at one another for a residing.
Miller saying, “We need to try to define” a time period that he simply made up is equally silly. The NFL has been making an attempt to outline a catch for over a decade and now it’s making an attempt to outline a deal with?
We’re nearing the purpose of a league official declaring “flamingo tackles” an issue and describing them as, “I know them when I see them.
“It’s outrageous behavior for the sake of violence and we need to rid it from the game, because it doesn’t give a ball-carrier a chance to defend himself, and those are players people pay to see.”
Read this McKay quote once more however with out the accompanying context, and inform me what the f*ck he’s speaking about.
“You can see what they do, because it can be a smaller man against a bigger man, and they’re trying to get the person down. That’s the object of the game.
“But when they do it, the runner becomes defenseless.”
THE RUNNER HAD A CHANCE TO DEFEND HIMSELF BEFORE THE TACKLE! The motive he’s carrying a soccer is so he can’t use each fingers to struggle off defenders on the way in which to the top zone. However, we might change that and provides Tyreek Hill a mace as an alternative of a ball and let him impale cornerbacks and safeties on the way in which to a celebratory dance. No? That’s referred to as medieval fight? OK.
The NFL’s participant safety technique appears to be: Find a breaking level for its supporters and staff and make them push again so vehemently that the media relents on accidents altogether and by no means talks about CTE once more.
Yes, soccer followers and gamers need elevated safety, however much more than that, they need the suitable medical response when accidents occur, as a result of it’s not an if. That’s why the NFLPA desires to ban synthetic turf, airs considerations a couple of lack of restoration time throughout an elevated schedule and will get pissed when concussions go undiagnosed.
I can’t wait till the league switches to those outsized helmets — that don’t negate head accidents, by the way in which — and the sport is a flurry of flags, performed by bobble heads operating into one another upright, afraid to deal with as a result of it is likely to be unlawful, but additionally the brand new 3-foot diameter helmets are popping ACLs like Orville Redenbacher.
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