With the recent stepped up enforcement on illegal hits, defensive players are crying foul. Many of them say they can't play the game the way it should be played or can't use proper tackling techniques any more.
First of all, this isn't a rules change. It is a change in penalties for ignoring the rules. Second, when did launching your body in the air at another guy's head with your arms dangling loosely at your side become proper tackling technique?
well it certainly avoids any penalties or repurcussions regarding how or where you place your hands on the opponent. 
until now of course.
As a Browns fan, I about came out of my skin when Harrison put that second hit on MoMass. I hate James Harrison with a passion, but I don't understand how a guy can be fined for a hit that wasn't even a penalty in the game. Should the refs be fined, too? They completely missed that call. I understood the first hit on Cribbs was "legal," but you could clearly see in the replay that he was trying to take him out.
There would be no problems if they would practice form tackling and not always go for the Sportcenter highlight. I doubt all this fuss is going to change the game much. Guys aren't going to let up when they're going full speed.
Whistles and walks away....
I got to be honest I can remember a time when hits like that were not the norm.
From someone who's played football their whole life, if we tackled like that in practice or a game, we'd be running laps. Diving and "hitting" someone is a very low percentage tackle. When you tackle, you wrap. It won't look at dramatic but it works. It's only a matter of time before one of those DB's breaks their neck in half.
I see a lot of missed tackles and I agree with the OP. Too much showmanship and not enough fundamentals.
Bababooey wrote: From someone who's played football their whole life, if we tackled like that in practice or a game, we'd be running laps. Diving and "hitting" someone is a very low percentage tackle. When you tackle, you wrap. It won't look at dramatic but it works. It's only a matter of time before one of those DB's breaks their neck in half.
It's already happened. A few times. The matter of time is when a player dies from that injury.
Some plays were a freak accident. OTOH, leading with your head increases the odds of a "freak accident" by many, many times.
Bababooey wrote: From someone who's played football their whole life, if we tackled like that in practice or a game, we'd be running laps. Diving and "hitting" someone is a very low percentage tackle. When you tackle, you wrap. It won't look at dramatic but it works. It's only a matter of time before one of those DB's breaks their neck in half.
My most yelled phrase on Saturdays in the fall is "WRAP UP!!!!!"
True, the "correct" way to tackle is to wrap up the ball carrier, but the pros have been doing this less and less in recent years. I heard an ESPN commentator (Tom Jackson?) say recently that guys have been hitting without wrapping up to avoid shoulder and arm injuries. I guess a missed tackle here and there is better than a season-ending, or career ending broken arm / dislocated shoulder/ etc. This is less true in High School and College, but more common in the Pros where the players are much bigger and faster, and the hits much harder.
I'm not sure how they plan on enforcing the new rules, but looming suspensions will make DB's think twice about leading with the head.
In an ideal game the offensive coordinators and QBs would take these hits as a warning not to throw in the middle of the field, as they have in the past. Of course back in the day they were more concerned with actually tackling as opposed to "blowing someone up".
While the Jacksonville Jaguars may not have the finest team on the field this season, they continue to have the league's best website, due in large part to their web editor, Vic Ketchman. Vic is an old-school sports journalist who, among other things, answers daily mail from fans about the Jags, and the game in general. It's a fine lesson in the game.
Here's his take on the "bad hit" situation, which I tend to agree with:
Q: A lot of people are saying these big hits are a result of bigger, faster players. Isn't it also a result of a league-wide emphasis on passing?
Vic: You get this week’s award for “fan with a brain.” Bless you for allowing me a whiff of intelligence in an outhouse of, well, in an outhouse. I blame the league for these violent collisions. I’m blaming the league because it continued to change a game that didn’t need changing. In its mania for stimulating scoring, it opened the field and created the space that is causing these violent collisions. It’s real simple: The more open-field action the league created, the more collisions that resulted. The old guys were vicious, but they played on a smaller field. The game was compressed. It was pound, pound, pound until you established the run, then you sold play-action and struck deep. OK, I agree, it wasn’t as exciting as today’s frenetic pace of action, but the stadiums were packed and the TV ratings were through the roof. The popularity of the modern game was built on that game. Why did it need to be changed? What is it about packed stadiums and high TV ratings that’s not good enough? The Monday Night Football ratings of today are good but they aren’t in Howard’s and Dandy Don’s league, and we’ve a rash of blackouts occurring. Yes, something has to be done immediately to curb the senseless violence but, in my opinion, the game needs to be tightened a little bit. It needs to throttle back on its pace before it crashes.
I have a sneaking suspicion that PEDs are adding to the speed and violence of these collisions. In MLB, PED users are pariahs. In the NFL, it seems to be no big deal.
So it's a crime to physically abuse the Browns now? What is football coming to?!?!
Joe Paterno says getting rid of the face mask would cut down on these kind of hits.
Joe Paterno didn't want helmets in the first place, the smell of sweaty leather made him sick.
I'm here in Philadelphia Eagle country, so the hit on DeSean Jackson has been big talk here (besides the talk on how the Phillies bats suck right now, but let's not go there). While the hit he took wasn't against the rules, I think it was unnecessary.
I heard it said a few times on sports shows, and I agree with this thought... Young players today grew up in the "highlight culture" where these monster hits are shown over and over, and they're glamourized. They're always looking to "blow up" a player, especially one who is defenseless. It doesn't take a tough or brave player to "blow up" someone who is looking the other way or has their arms fully extended and is vulernerable. I'd like to see those same players try that type of hit on a 230lb running back who's got a full head of steam, and staring straight at them.
Football is a violent game, and there will always be hard hits. But blowing up a defenseless player is not real football, IMHO.
Soft-shell helmets is the answer I think. You are essentially giving a defensive player a weapon when he put's his helmet on. Bet he'd think twice about going head to head if his noggin was wrapped in foam instead of hard armor.
DeSean Jackson
Is that French for "The Sean?"
How bout if we give all the players nerf helmets and wrap them in those funny Sumo wrestling costumes that are padded to the wazoo. And maybe they can all wear crocs and soft boxing gloves so they can't grab onto anything. Yeah that's the ticket.
Too much safety will kill all the fun and enjoyment of the game.
Maybe they should start wearing HANS devices.
My dad played football a LONG time ago, way back in the 1920s. He told me that when he first started playing in high school, some teams didn't even have helmets at all. By the time he went to college they were at least wearing those leather helmets like you see on the Heisman trophy, but those things didn't provide a lot of protection. I got the impression it was a pretty brutal sport at the time.
Klayfish wrote: I heard it said a few times on sports shows, and I agree with this thought... Young players today grew up in the "highlight culture" where these
ZING!
Make a huge pop! You are all over ESPN, the local news highlights, the newspapers, The Sports Machine, etc. Maybe even immortalized in an NFL Films documentary.
Make fundamental and sound tackles your whole career, rack up stats, yet no one knows your name. Idiocracy has been happening, make this is a step in the right direction for it to not happen?
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