New NFL enforcement.

So the NFL says they're going to start suspending players for illegal hits.

I admit I haven't been a football fan long enough to really comprehend what sort of impact this will have.

Any opinions?

It is to prevent players from making helmet to helmet hits as seen here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9RfJwSkMU8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SoDPFhT-u8

Unfortunately the bigger and safer helmets have become, the more players have taken to using them as weapons. There's one guaranteed way to stop that: Outlaw facemasks. When no one has a facemask no one will lead with their head.

Of course, that's not realistic either, so I think the suspension angle is probably the best way to clean up some of the nasty hits. Although it will still lead to a lot of judgment calls, I think players take suspensions more seriously than fines.

In some ways I see the problem as one of the growing pains of a changing game. As the game becomes more offense-biased, defensive backs have gotten smaller and faster, and as a result, tackling has been replaced by pushing and spearing. How often do you see a DB make a traditional "wrap the runner up and take him to the ground" tackle anymore? You don't. Everyone plays like they're afraid to get dirty, so they push and shove and hit high, rather than wrapping up and hitting low.

You can also blame the fans to some extent. Fans want to see a wide open, ball-in-the-air game. They don't want to see three yards and a cloud of dust anymore. So the league loosens the rules to favor the offense—like telling a DB that if he so much as breathes on a receiver past five yards away from the line of scrimmage he gets a pass interference flag—so defenses have to do whatever they can to keep pace.

jg

I saw the hit Merriweather laid out on Todd Heap. I was appalled. I applaud Bellichek (sic?) for taking him off the field after that. Not every coach would do that.

I'll be interesting to see how things get shaken up on Sunday.

Good for them. I saw way too many kids hurt when I played in high school, which is why I stopped. It's even worse in the NFL. Head injuries are not to be trifled with.

Want to make the game safer... just get rid of the pads and helmets.

Compare injuries with rugby, I suspect you will see a big difference.

Here's a different perspective on it.

One that, much like switching to rugby equipment, will probably never gain traction, because it advocates common sense. Not that I think these rules are bad.

Kevin Van Valkenburg said: Why policing "devastating" hits is going to be virtually impossible After a weekend of carnage, the NFL says it's about to get serious about violent hits, possibly as soon as this weekend, when it may start doling out suspensions in addition to fines for hits it considers "devastating." The policy has good intentions, but you cannot fix a generational problem overnight. If the NFL wants to tone down the violence after spending years encouraging it (or at the very least, years spent taking a See No Evil policy) it should take all the fine money and suspension money it collects and use it to better teach tackling at the youth level. Football is an instinctual game, and once those instincts are in place, they cannot be changed. The time to teach Brandon Meriweather to lead with his shoulders and not his helmet was 10 years ago, not 10 days ago. But in fairness to defensive players, it's already difficult, if not impossible, to determine intent for one isolated hit. Did an offensive player duck his head at the last minute and actually cause the helmet-to-helmet contact himself? Did the fact that he failed to catch the ball make the hit seem worse than it was? No matter what the NFL says, you're less likely to see a flag thrown if an offensive player catches the ball, even if the hit is exactly the same. But in both instances -- a drop or a catch -- the defender is already running full speed to deliver the hit or make the tackle. It's unclear how a defender is supposed to freeze himself in mid-sprint to gauge how hard he should hit a receiver, then follow through with the rest of play. Granted, it becomes easier when you look at a player's entire body of work, which is why James Harrison's three helmet-to-helmet hits against the Browns constituted, in my opinion, the most suspension-worthy performance of the weekend. Harrison barely so much as raised his arms to tackle once. But let's be completely frank about big hits in football: The offensive players -- and offensive coordinators who draw up the plays -- deserve some of the blame here, too. It used to be almost universally understood that, as an offensive player, running across the middle of the field carried with it potential risk. You were welcome to run those routes, but you also acknowledged there might be consequences. Much like following the puck into the corner, it was not for the feint of heart. These days, offensive coordinators don't seem to care about the potential danger of sending guys over the middle, and players (quarterbacks and receivers) don't seem to understand that you cannot run routes through zone coverage at full speed -- especially going across the field, which is what happened to DeSean Jackson on the hit by Dunta Robinson -- unless you find the soft spot in the zone, catch the ball and fall down. Former Ravens tight end Daniel Wilcox was on the Mark Viviano Show this morning and he made exactly this point, which almost no one acknowledges when they bring up this issue. You're putting defensive players in an unfair position. Routes over the middle are supposed to be a little dangerous. And in fairness to Harrison, Josh Cribbs needs to understand that he cannot be cutting back against the flow of pursuit. Those are reckless plays by the offensive player that contribute to reckless plays by the defensive player. If Harrison and Robinson go low and blow out Cribbs' or Jackson's knee on that play, is it any less devastating? Robinson actually hit Jackson with his shoulder. It looked like helmet to helmet, but it wasn't. Watch the replay. Essentially, he was flagged for hitting too hard. Isn't hitting hard part of football? Yes, we need to figure out a way to reduce concussions in the NFL. I still think it's time to talk about a better helmet, even if it doesn't look "cool." But don't place all the blame on the defenders. These are the same guys who grew up watching what were essentially music videos of violent hits that were once marketed and celebrated by the NFL. But offensive coaches, quarterbacks and receivers believing they're invincible is part of the problem, too. That might make people uncomfortable to acknowledge, because it feels like you're blaming the victim. In a situation where a player is seriously hurt or paralyzed, no one wants to consider that any other factors may be involved other than someone did something violent that crossed the line. But the danger of catching passes over the middle, or in the area between the linebackers and safeties, is part of the code of football, and probably always will be.

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