The NFL could soon start suspending players for dangerous helmet-to-helmet hits, vice president of football operations Ray Anderson told The Associated Press on Monday.
After a Sunday of violent hits and concussion inducing collisions, Anderson said the league might need to do more than fining players to prevent such hits.
“There’s strong testimonial for looking readily at evaluating discipline, especially in the areas of egregious and elevated dangerous hits,” he said in a phone interview. “Going forward there are certain hits that occurred that will be more susceptible to suspension. There are some that could bring suspensions for what are flagrant and egregious situations.”
Anderson said the NFL could make changes in its approach immediately, with Commissioner Roger Goodell having the final say. League officials will consult with the union, but he didn’t expect any opposition.
Philadelphia Eagles’ wide receiver DeSean Jackson and Dunta Robinson of the Atlanta Falcons’ were knocked out on the same play after a helmet-to-helmet collision, while Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison sidelined two Cleveland Browns players with head injuries after jarring hits.
“The fundamentally old way of wrapping up and tackling seems to have faded away,” Anderson said. “A lot of the increase is from hits to blow guys up. That has become a more popular way of doing it. Yes, we are concerned they are getting away from the fundamentals of tackling, and maybe it has been coached that way. We’re going to have to look into talking to our coaches.”
Retired safety Rodney Harrison, now an analyst for NBC, was fined more than $200,000 during his career and was suspended for one game in 2002 for a helmet-to-helmet hit.
“You didn’t get my attention when you fined me 5 grand, 10 grand, 15 grand,” he said during the “Sunday Night Football” broadcast. “You got my attention when I got suspended and I had to get away from my teammates and I disappointed my teammates from not being there. But you have to suspend these guys. These guys are making millions of dollars.”
If no one else will say it, Hall of Fame wide receiver Cris Carter will: how do you want the players to hit, then? In the knees? In the chest? They already are.
If you watch most of – repeat, most of – the hits that have caused a stir or drawn a fine over the last decade, most players lowered their shoulders and hit for the chest, in order to separate the man from the ball – as they had been taught. Yes, some players lead with their helmet – and those players are fined and suspended, rightfully.
But a player hitting the same way as they always have doesn’t beg legislation from the league. Something wrong happened that rarely does – a bad angle, too much or too little speed by one of the players involved. Carter said on ESPN’s Mike & Mike In The Morning that perhaps Jackson’s concussion was caused by him going too fast across the middle against a zone defense.
So should we have a no speeding zone in the middle of the field?
I, for one, never got riled up during the big push to protect quarterbacks in recent years. Stationary players standing upright and unprepared while someone tees off on them at full speed is just dumb. But moving players are going to collide.
Here’s the dirty little secret over the not-so-new issue regarding hard hits and concussions in football: we really don’t care, and kind of like it, as long as it’s not us or one of our favorite players.
There’s really no denying it. It’s one of the joys of football – hard hits.
Sound crass? C’mon, get off your high horse.
Tell me, how many of you haven’t shrieked in delight or let out an “OOOOHHHHHH” watching a replay of some guy getting de-cleated? There’s a segment on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” pregame show called “Jacked Up!” where the studio crew watch some plays, laugh and shout, “You got jacked up!”
And you’re telling me we don’t celebrate the big hit?
There was an NFL video game for year’s called “Blitz.” The very premise of the game was hits. The sounds from the game were always bone-crushing noises and grunts on every play. Late hits and pass interference were allowed. Players often performed wrestling moves during the tackles. Literally. Like, body slams, leg drops, elbow drops, flying kicks to the face and DDTs. “Blitz” was basically made as a cross between Mortal Kombat, the NFL and NBA Jam’s video game series.
It was also one of the most popular and successful sports video game chains.
What relevance does this have to the discussion? Well, for decades we’ve celebrated football’s violence and gladiator style combat, while turning around and displaying shock and sadness when something bad inevitably happens.
They same guys jovially conversing about who got “Jacked up!” worse suddenly get somber and stoic when the topic turns to those same violent hits ending careers or the players suffering concussions. There is concern in their voices and it’s often addressed in hushed tones.
Many former players, like Carter, say it’s just a part of the game and a football reality. Carter’s suggestion: widen the field. Give the bigger, stronger, faster athletes of the modern area more freedom to move and create space.
You know what the next discussion would be, right? How much scoring is up, how it is too hard to tackle anyone and how football has lost some of its edge.
Watching replays at halftime of Indianapolis Colts – Washington Redskins game on “Sunday Night Football,” you could have heard me laughing three houses down as the kicker for the Seattle Seahawks got whacked like he’d wiped out on a wake board during Devin Hester’s return for a touchdown.
My son was watching the highlights with me. He just completed his first year of tackle football – and he played quite well, earning a selection to the All-Star team. He laughed at the silly kicker flying backward, too.
Just about an hour later, after my son had long been in bed, I wasn’t laughing anymore.
The Colts Joseph Addai had just taken a nasty hit (about the 10th NFL player of the day to take one). Addai’s was one of those where the player falls straight to the ground without moving on the way down, resembling the Apollo Creed death scene in “Rocky IV.”
He didn’t move for what felt like an eternity. When he finally did and the training staff had Addai back on his feet, he had that look of a stumbling drunk, eyes dazed and lids slowly moving up and down. Redskins linebacker London Fletcher, who had delivered the hit, tried to check on Addai the entire time he was being helped off the field.
NBC cameras showed Fletcher’s face perfectly clear: scared and regretful. You could tell he felt terrible.
So did I.
Down the hall slept an eight-year-old boy with some bruises on his arms and legs from two months of football, who hit hard and always got up. He still has six games left for All-Stars. Terrified, I thought about what if my son was the one on the receiving end. What if he was the one “jacked up”? I certainly wouldn’t be laughing.
I want him to play football as long as he wants to.
But, I’m too afraid we’re going to have to watch someone die on the field. Too afraid my son would see it and it would somehow affect the way he plays or approaches the game. Too afraid, of something I can’t even write.
You always hear there’s no room for fear in the game of football. And there isn’t.
But the room left absent by fear shouldn’t be filled with the darkness of disabilities, concussions and life-altering hits.
We can find some kind of room in the middle, can’t we?
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