Is Roger Goodell crippling players in his tenure?

discoverecology

Revvin' for Seven!!
Is Roger Goodell going to be known for crippling players in his tenure?

The knee-shot tackle is back! Credit Roger Goodell for hurting people. Ever had your knee speared? He single-handedly changed the game. For the rest of the player's lives they will remember "Goodell Rules".
 

Arctic Dawgs

Well-Known Member
Head to head with crown of helmut is easy to stop.

ANY PLAYER THAT LOWERS HIS HEAD IMMEDIATLY BEFORE CONTACT IS AUTOMATICALLY EJECTED. 2 PLAYERS FROM SAME TEAM IN SAME GAME EJECTED GETS HEAD COACH AN AUTOMATIC EJECTION AS WELL

Problem solved
 

discoverecology

Revvin' for Seven!!
Brandon Meriweather has been sanctioned twice by the league this season for illegal hits targeting the helmet and neck of defenseless receivers. He returned Monday from a one-game suspension and said from now on he'll have ''to take people's knees out'' and cause career-ending injuries.

''You've got to tear people's ACLs and mess up people's knees now,'' he said Monday. ''You can't hit 'em high anymore.'' http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nflpa-redskins-meriweather-sorry-comments-170825944--nfl.html

Dammit. Stupid F*in' Goodell.
 

cctekguy

Staff member
No, I'm not messing with you, I'm trying to understand the logic behind blaming Goodell.

As I recall, the NFL was under a lot of pressure from outside sources to do something about head injuries. I remember seeing a little docudrama about former players that had suffered head injuries and their struggles to live a normal life. A real gut wrencher. Goodell did the only thing he could to save his ass. (short of reinventing the helmet).

So the ban on high hits results in an increase in low hits....DUH.

To say it is Goodell's fault is to basically say we should go back to allowing helmet to helmet, and maybe that isn't so crazy. I know I would rather have my bell rung a few times than to have my knee caps ripped off.

I can think of a lot of places to put blame other than Goodell.

Let's start with the fans. No matter what rules anyone puts in place there will always be positive reinforcement from the fans to "hurt somebody". Big hitters are hometown favorites. Thugs are darlings when they are knocking out the other guy.
How does the old cheer go? "Hit'em again, hit'em again, harder, harder"


How about the coaches (starting in jr. high, for Gods sake). Players are coached to inflict maximum pain on opposing players. It's what gets them noticed, promoted and ultimately drafted by an NFL team.

What about the mind set of the players? Guys like Meriweather think that ending YOUR career is not important. All that matters is HIS career and the recognition he will receive for ending yours. $20,000 fine seems reasonable if it means a trip to the Pro Bowl and a few headlines.

And of course, when you dig for the roots of the above problems it all comes back to the pressure to WIN, and ultimately....MONEY.

If Goodell has made a mistake it was pretending to care about the players at all. If we truly cared about the players we would abolish the game. Football is bloodsport. It's what the fans want and it's what sells tickets. Players are payed the big bucks today for a crippled tomorrow. That's the deal, and not 1 of them would walk away from it.
 

ExperiencedRookie

Well-Known Member
Who gives a shit. If these guys don't like it, they can quit.

Every workplace comes with some level of bull shit you have to put up with, and that scale can often be determined by how big your paycheck is.

You don't want to turn your brain into mash potatoes, go work for TD Ameritrade or UPS.

These players all know the risks involved. If I was Goodell I'd encourage the types of hits we fans love to see. If you're too much of a pussy to take it, get off the field and let someone else try to play hero for millions of dollars.
 

discoverecology

Revvin' for Seven!!
I can think of a lot of places to put blame other than Goodell.

Let's start with the fans. No matter what rules anyone puts in place there will always be positive reinforcement from the fans to "hurt somebody". Big hitters are hometown favorites. Thugs are darlings when they are knocking out the other guy.
How does the old cheer go? "Hit'em again, hit'em again, harder, harder"


How about the coaches (starting in jr. high, for Gods sake). Players are coached to inflict maximum pain on opposing players. It's what gets them noticed, promoted and ultimately drafted by an NFL team.

You know more about football than I do. I just know knee-shots hurt you for life. Arguably concussions and other blows do also, but the knee-shot is immediate and permanent, guaranteed. Just pissed because they started calling bullfeathers calls last year for a slight unintentional touching of helmets which is unavoidable. That is stupid application of a rule. The byproduct is a permanent crippling of players. There is no "slight" touching of a knee on a knee-block. That's all I'm trying to say. And yes, I blame the Emperor Goodell for this change directly.
 

discoverecology

Revvin' for Seven!!
They're mostly way, way over paid to do what they do vs the average american. (more than three- thank you very much.)
... As evidenced by their "entitled" philosophy abused by Incognito and company. "You want to belong to OUR club you play by OUR rules, boy!" O for the days of pure sports again.
 

discoverecology

Revvin' for Seven!!
These players all know the risks involved. If I was Goodell I'd encourage the types of hits we fans love to see. If you're too much of a pussy to take it, get off the field and let someone else try to play hero for millions of dollars.
Goodell doesn't care about the fan$ unle$$ they make the league more money. Only if they make the league more money. Only the money. Not the fans, not the sport. It's the Industry now and only the Industry Goodell cares about. As said above, the pressure from others and possible myriad of lawsuits is the only reason Emperor Goodell changed the rules. If the care was really for the game or the players he would have thought it through first rather than pleasing the loudest call "this has to change" from his lawyers. "You have to look like you're doing something about it" rings in Goodell's ears. To this day he thinks he did something good. If the football players on the field knew when they were in gradeschool that knee-shots would become the only legal way to tackle they may have chosen another sport. This is new, don't forget.
 

Phicinfan

Expert on nothing, opinionated on everything
Administrator
Who gives a shit. If these guys don't like it, they can quit.

Every workplace comes with some level of bull shit you have to put up with, and that scale can often be determined by how big your paycheck is.

You don't want to turn your brain into mash potatoes, go work for TD Ameritrade or UPS.

These players all know the risks involved. If I was Goodell I'd encourage the types of hits we fans love to see. If you're too much of a pussy to take it, get off the field and let someone else try to play hero for millions of dollars.
Wow, feel the love for our fellow human beings. This is below you man. These guys have incredible skill, and put themselves out there for US as much as for ownership. Got news for ya, if we didn't show or watch, owners wouldn't exist.

I am all for making things safer. I have to think if there are helmets out here for Racers, and skiers that protect from injury, why not football?

As for blaming Goodell, that is crap. The league needs to change, god forbid they focus on fundamentals, and good tackling - which head shots are not. I honestly believe if you take the face mask or helmet away, you would eliminate a ton of this stuff.
 

ExperiencedRookie

Well-Known Member
Wow, feel the love for our fellow human beings. This is below you man.
Actually, I thinks it's a perfectly justifiable line of thinking. We're not talking about a starving child in a 3rd world country or a second generational breast cancer patient. These men choose their own paths.

Sure, it might be a love for the game or even the only thing they were ever good at, but money, fame, and glory has a lot to do with it. The hero worship often starts at the high school level and the risks aren't hidden. You can expect me or anyone else to feel sorry for someone who cashed the checks and now has brain trauma.

The league minimum salary pays a player $2,070,000 for their 1st 4 years in the league. That's the MINUMUM! You know how many years the average American has to work to earn that amount? 46 years! Essentially their entire career at the national average.

It would only get to the disgusting level if we started talking about the guys who are actually on the field absorbing a lot of these hits. Their pay is typically far beyond the league minimum.

There are few chosen professions where I'm going to feel sorry for the unlucky people who take the worst of the risks involved. Only one that comes to mind are the men and women enlisted in our armed forces. Compare their pay checks to these pussy NFL cry babies and start talking about risks.

End of argument.
 

ExperiencedRookie

Well-Known Member
...or schoolteachers. They do the public a real service.
For this day and age, that's a good example.

20 years ago it might not have applied, but in recent history you're more likely to have someone walk into your place of business and shoot you if you're a teacher than pro football player.
 
Top