Which way is the nfl headed?

[Maxheader]

Tag football or more injury's?

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2791799-helmet-rule-will-change-the-nfl-but-only-if-the-league-can-figure-it-out?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

Helmet Rule Will Change the NFL, But Only If the League Can Figure It Out

Let's start with something many of us can agree on: Malcolm Jenkins walloped Brandin Cooks in the Super Bowl.

It's a famous hit, and a vicious one. No flag was thrown, but the tens of millions of fans who saw it wouldn't have been surprised if there was one. It was a borderline play, the kind that should serve as a benchmark as the NFL implements its new use-of-the-helmet policy.

Under the new rules, which are meant to completely eliminate crown-of-helmet contact, the famous Jenkins-Cooks collision would appear to be a good template for an unnecessary roughness penalty.

Um, maybe not.

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"We put the Malcolm play up [on a video screen] on our own," Eagles linebacker Nigel Bradham said. "One ref said it was illegal, and one ref said legal."

-snip-

As the season approaches, the new rule threatens to decide games and result in fines, ejections and suspensions for collisions that were previously considered routine, or even textbook examples of proper technique.

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"How I'm taking it, they're just trying to protect us from the missile-type hits," Giants linebacker Kareem Martin said in early August. "From a player-safety standpoint, that's safer for everybody, from the player getting hit to the player delivering the hit."

-snip-

Then the preseason games began and the flags flew abundantly and nigh-randomly. Officials called 51 use-of-helmet penalties in the first two weeks of the preseason, according to Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk, a rate that extrapolates to 396 new penalties this season. A grand majority of those calls were on defensive players, many of them for routine-looking, not-too-intense tackles.

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"There is no “make adjustment” to the way you tackle. Even in a perfect form tackle the body is led by the head. The rule is idiotic And should be dismissed immediately. When you watch rugby players tackle they are still lead by their head. Will be flag football soon...."...R. Sherman

[tonyt53]

1. As someone that played college football back in caveman days, I say that R. Sherman is wrong.

I assume that is "Roger" Sherman. A guy that leads with is head. We were taught to hit with our shoulders. Even in the days of the NFL/AFL merger guys lead with their shoulders. This head first hitting is relatively new, like in the past 17-20 years.

[yallerdawg]

2. Back in the day...

we were taught leading with your helmet is a good way to break your neck.

If you got your face in their chest, wrap your arms and tackle. You never used the crown of the helmet to hit someone.

Of course, we weren't being paid millions of dollars - money changes everything.

[tonyt53]

3. Right on all accounts!

[brewens]

4. As a sophomore in 1976, I made our varsity team but got last pick of helmets. I was a big kid

with a big head and there was only one left that would fit me. I got stuck with a 60's vintage suspension style helmet. It only had suspension straps in the crown like hard hats have. It had foam padding lining the forehead, back of the neck and ears. I'd had better helmets all three years at my junior high.

I mean to tell you, you did not go for a head to head shot wearing that thing! The incidental bangs you got in close line play hits was bad enough. Old footage from the days when everyone was wearing those shows they didn't use them as weapons.

They are finally addressing one thing I brought up over and over. The ball carrier now isn't supposed to lower their head and use the helmet either. I think it's going to be a huge cluster though. Inconsistent calls will make it a mess. It's going to be really hard to get it right now. If they do it right, we should see flags on both players when head to head contact is made.

[yallerdawg]

5. Head shots on the line!

We WERE trained to knock the fire out of the guy across from us, even using open-handed blows to the head. We were wearing helmets, right?

This is banned now, might be THE major cause of CTE in old retired players now.

But the almost universal identification of CTE at all ages of players - and in all sports involving physical contact including soccer - suggest the accumulation of mild forces that just shake the brain around in the shell catch up with us.

There's an appetite for watching this apparently self-destructive stuff, boxing, MMA, wrestling, 'tough guy' - always has been, I guess.

It's becoming more and more obvious that we are not a species that worries much about tomorrow, no matter how 'smart' we think we are.