<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/GlW1WnIGnCs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/sports/nfl/111208-antonio-smith-fined-%2415%2C000-by-the-nfl Is this standard practice in the NFL? you grab a QBs helmet you get fined? Drew Rosenhaus is Smith's agent?? lame.
I wish someone would walk up to the QB one game and slap him in the face with a glove so we could see what kind of fine he gets.
Yet a quarterback gets fined only 7 grand for intentionally grabbing the facemask and back of helmet of another player and throwing him to the ground by it. The NFL is hypocritical and lame.
if Antonio got 15k for that.. then Harrison should be kicked out of the league for the illegal hit on Colt McCoy last night.
This is the way the NFL is now. They have made a decision neuter defenses because they think that offensive shootouts are what sells, and they are afraid of future lawsuit liability on the helmet-to-helmet stuff. Get used to it. It won't go away any time soon.
I don't think it is about offensive showdowns bringing in more cash, I think it is about owners who invest tens of millions of dollars in to offensive stars so they want to protect those investments. I hate the pussification of football as much as the next guy but I'm fine with the the crack down on helmet to helmet hits, and leading with the helmet. We have medical proof that it kills people. I think the NFL is doing the best it can with the information it currently has. They know as players get faster and stronger, they are going to eventually have more severe injuries, so they have to adapt for that. Yes, it sucks but it is part of the process of playing the game at such fast levels now. You can say they didn't do it in the "good ol' days," but they also didn't have elite athletic specimens at every single position. Even at those slower speeds, retired football players are experiencing horrific aftereffects, imagine what the players of today would be going through in 20 years time, if they used the same rules of the 70s. Half of them would probably be crippled. Strength and conditioning has changed not only the game, but the short and long term injuries.
As players get bigger/stonger, the equipment gets better. I would bet football was more dangerous 40-50 years ago than it is today.
I see your point, and totally agree, but to play devil's advocate, the NFL makes it's money in large part due to satiating America's lust for violence and sports at the same time (I always compare the NFL to a water-down, weak version of the battles that took place at The Coliseum, even though that's a weak comparison). Also, these players, with little education (if you're going to lump them all together), are making more money than 99.9% of all Americans. They signed up to play a violent sport, which they know has a huge injury risk, and gives them a short shelf-life. It's part of the job. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be any penalties, or anything remotely close to that. I personally think that James Harrison should either shut up and pay the fines, change his game, or get kicked out of the league. It's a privilege to play in the NFL, and the game would not miss him at all. But what I do think is that the excessive fouls that are called when you touch the quarterback, the "defenseless receiver" calls, and in general, all of the bogus, new-age calls that have been introduced in the past five years or so (once again, helmet-to-helmet not included) are bogus and absurd. If you're trying to protect the players, and you're going after player safety, you need to defend defensive players equally. What Matthew Stafford did to whoever it was on the Bears was one of the most flagrant penalties I've seen in a long time. To think that he only got fined 7,000 dollars for it, when a defensive player gets fined 10 grand for an inadvertent play, and 15 grand for another is just ludicrous. I honestly believe Stafford's penalty was the equivalent, if not greater than Suh's stomping penalty. He should have been thrown out of the game at the very least and fined somewhere in the Harrison range. In my opinion, though, he should have been suspended for at least a game.
