ESPN's Mark Schlereth on the new hitting rule in the NFL

Well, that made entirely too much sense.

All you need is one rule.

Head up when you hit = ok.

Head down when you hit = penalty.

 

James Harrison is "thinking" about retiring.

 

Agree 100%! Simple and effective.

 

Saw this this morning. Good commentary.

 

He's absolutely correct. The Merriweather hit was criminal and should have resulted in a fine AND a suspension. Harrison's hit on Massaquoi was debatable. Looked to me like he purposely went after his head. The one with Cribbs was not. I've already said I don't think there was anything wrong with Dunta's hit on Deshawn Jackson. It was quick, he had the ball, and it wasn't helmet to helmet.

The league makes billions off of it's product...a huge part of which is hard hits. I remember as a kid watching an NFL video like the one he was talking about. My friends and I watched it over and over...and then went outside and played football for hours.

 

I thought the rule was already there, but now the NFL is just "going to enforce it more closely".

I like bitter anti company guys like Schlereth, seems like he's always had an axe to grind against the NFL.

 

That was beautiful


The other guy looked scared...

 

Saw that this morning on ESPN. Great response on Schlereth's part and every bit of it was true. National Hypocritical League had me going lol.

 

Big fan of Mark. Dude just speaks his mind. Love it.

 

When we were kids, they didn't have a bunch of science saying that these hits were causing permanent damage to the NFL players. I'm amazed that this is so controversial. Hits to the head were already illegal. Now they are going to suspend people instead of fining them nominal amounts that are irrelevant to multimillionaires. Why is this a big deal?

 

i just hope the knee jerk reaction by the NFL was just a PR move "show that they care about the players" rather an ongoing trend.

The dunta hit was just silly. That hit couldnt be anymore clean...it was just very hard.

 

Suspension... loss of a game check (typically a larger amount of money than what your normal fine is)... unable to practice with team... miss a game... hurts the team... etc...

 

why not let them wear some more padding... this sport is about high velocity impact.... goodbye NFL.

 

That's why it's time to change the rules on what clean is.

 

I agree Major. And if James Harrison wants to quit playing because he's not allowed to break rules that could potentially take years off of someone's life, then he's a terrible human being and it's a shame he is making money playing a game.

 

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What will the NFL do? Besides overact horribly and ruin the sport? Read on and discover the pussifying rule change to come:


All players must wrap heads in bubble wrap.

Safeties may only corral ball carriers with medium-sized butterfly net.

Middle of the field now ruled out of bounds

Instead of playing games, Yahoo fantasy football projection will be used to determine outcomes.

Defenders must make eye contact with ball carrier before hitting him.

Suspension handed out anytime a hit makes Ross Tucker erect.

Players may only launch ass-first at quarterbacks beyond the line of scrimmage.

James Harrison HANGED as a message to other players.

All Steelers suspended to send a message that no players should be Steelers.

Annual speech from Merrill Hoge on the dangers of potato purple jump sweater.

Every player issued team mascot head in lieu of helmet.

Concussed players no longer allowed to be told to “suck it up” before being forced to return to action.

Freeze Tag rules implemented

“Defenseless receivers” to receive motorcade escort over the middle.

 

Right - I understand the penalty is higher. But it's higher for something that was already illegal and causes permanent damage to the players. It would be different if they were making new things illegal - but these are things the players shouldn't be doing anyway.

 

Well, apparently it's a vague rule to begin with that hasn't been enforced very strictly.

 

Exactly - it's ludicrous that he's whining about being penalized for illegally hitting people in a way that causes damage to their long-term health.