This new season of football has brought a new set of stricter rules. While it’s understandable that the National Football League head office wants to protect the players and preserve the integrity of the game, there’s a line between protecting players and treating them like 3-year-olds. Will the next line of enforcement be dressing them in fluorescent tutus and putting flags in the back of their pants? Will it be two-hand touch? In either of these two outcomes, how could players in the league stop playing the way they’ve been taught their whole lives?
The word football is practically synonymous with the phrase “rough and tough” and players know that from the day that they start playing. Anybody that doesn’t understand the physical aspect of football just needs to look at one play and they will see how physically demanding the game is. Injury is an inevitability in the game of football, no two ways around it. Does the NFL front office really have interest vested in protecting the players or are they essentially coddling them so they can be seen as angels in the public eye for focusing on their safety?
In any event, the commissioner knows what the game is. The players signed up to play, and the fans choose to watch for a reason. If you can’t respect football for the great and physically demanding game it is, the bowling alley is right down the street.