The NFL’s recent claim that teams could be fined if players habitually commit “illegal” hits is laughable. It’s the NFL’s attempt to appear that it also has the players’ interest in mind when it comes to fines.
If the NFL really wants to make a real statement about illegal hits, suspend the violators. It’s not about the money for most of these guys – or the teams – it’s about the action. And the winning.
And you can’t get either from the sideline. If they want to try to curb the “illegal” hits, start by costing the big-name players games; that’s what will really hurt. In fact, if it was about the money, then why are the NFL Films (and the NFL Network) people still doing about 1,000 highlight videos a year – and those videos are not filled with form blocks and proper ways for the holder to put the ball down on PATs. No, until the NFL stops the hypocritical approach of “fines,” then the rest of this is just a smoke screen.
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There’s a bigger issue at play here across all of sports. We continue to look for ways to be safer, and sometimes it appears the powers that be are so intent on safety that everything else is not of consequence.