James Harrison is still upset about the NFL passing the rule that would not only fine players, but punish teams with fines and the possible loss of draft picks, Harrison is sounding off again, this time via his blog:
“It’s been weighing heavy on my mind all day, so I figure I might as well just let it out. I want to make it clear that I am all for player safety. I don’t disagree with all of the rule changes.”
“But come on…REALLY? Now you have to wait until a guy catches, or even worse, you have to let them catch the ball before you can even attempt to tackle him. Along with that, you cannot let any part of your helmet or facemask touch any part of them basically from the chest up. If you are following the letter of the rules exactly, now most tackles, if not ALL tackles can be flagged, fined and/or result in ejection from that game, or future game(s).”
“I understand the intent behind making the rules, but in their attempt to make the game safer, they are actually clouding what is allowable. Even the referees are confused. A close look will show you that the referees were calling things that were not even supposed to be called, and NOT calling things that were actually illegal.”
“The decision to call a penalty or impose a fine is seemingly, at least some of the time, dependent upon the uniform and the player. After my meeting this past fall with Roger Goodell, Ray Anderson, and Merton Hanks and some others, who I now have absolutely no respect for (to keep it PG), I definitely believe there is no equality in their enforcement of these rules.”
“These rules are targeting hard hitting players and defenses i.e. STEELERS. I guess the NFL needed a poster child for their campaign.”
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DrGeorge
May 31, 2011 at 9:14 am
The NFL has a problem: there is good medical evidence that trauma to the brain in youth (especially repeated trauma) can lead to mental impairment later in life. This is true of all contact sports (boxing, football, hockey, etc.). The NFL has a moral obligation to limit the frequency of brain trauma caused by playing the sport; it also has a financial interest in limiting its liabilities for mental impairment under its health plan for retired players. The fans understand and support this effort.
The challenge for R. Goodell and the NFL staff is to craft rules that limit brain trauma, but preserve the integrity of the game. That means the rules must be clear and capable of consistent enforcement. It is important that fans recognize a foul when it occurs in order to give legitimacy to the penalty imposed by the referee. When enforcement appears to be biased or (which is even worse)irrational, the integrity of the game suffers, as it did last season.
If the rules become overly legalistic, it will turn off fan interest. If the rules create an imbalance between offense and defense, pro football will become, in effect, a species of arena football, with inflated scores and a lopsided emphasis on offense, and again fan interest will decline.
I do not know if James Harrison’s description of the new rules is accurate, but I do know that he expresses a widely-felt frustration with the imprecision of the existing rules. The Steelers are one of the premier franchises in the NFL; any rule change that appears to target the Steelers will have profound and deleterious repercussion across the NFL. The oft-forgotten fans want and deserve a fair game in which the offense and the defense have approximate parity. If the NFL cannot gives us that within the context of a contact sport, we might as well play flag football or two-hand touch.