Illegal hits

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5706132

I just read this article and watched this video. I know I intended to blog mostly about Morocco, etc., but this caught my attention and I think is worth mentioning.

Schlereth Sounds Off here about 'illegal hits' in the NFL. He seems mostly right. You've got to protect the players to some extent, and it's tough because the game has gotten pretty damn fast and physical. So often the defensive player is charged, but the extremity of the impact seems to me -- amateur physics alert here -- to be caused equally by how fast the offensive player is moving. Granted, unsuspecting, stationary offensive players get smashed and injured and concussed, but these are collisions, right?

Second thing, Schlereth -- or "Stink" -- makes an analogy here to soccer. He suggests that if we don't allow these kinds of smashing hits, then what we have is soccer. Pretty inaccurate. It's more like rugby, where you have to wrap your arms around the ball carrier when tackling and can't go high. I'm not advocating an NFL rule change, but I will say that rugby fans aren't left wanting for more high impact collisions. There's still plenty of smashing and violence on the rugby pitch.

Also, I generally think the "soccer is for wussies and therefore un-American" is a little played out. It's a pretty worn analogy and was pretty thin to begin with. Is there a single soccer player who could survive the entire 11 minutes of an NFL game when the ball is actually in play? Maybe a very, very small few (excepting of course the kicking positions). But the lack of violence isn't THEE reason Americans "don't like" soccer (which they increasingly do). It may definitely be what we love about football, but violence is absent from baseball, for example, and it's still loved. For very different reasons.

I do fear for the future of soccer -- and not just in America -- because of the "wussiness". It's not the diving so much that's a problem, because drawing fouls is a part of the sport just as much as it is basketball. Is the grimace on the face of a driving small forward as he gets hand checked really necessary? What sets soccer apart, unquestionably, is the feigning of injuries, which is an abomination, in my opinion. Fair game to go down with a slight shove and try to get a penalty to tie the game in the last minute. Officials should be able to tell the difference. But why roll around on the ground and try to get another guy tossed? It's too much. It ruins it for me, and there are a handful of highly talented players who I will never appreciate because of this.

As for the NFL, they've got to seriously consider this issue in the offseason. They need major rule changes if they're going to keep dealing out the fines they are. I'm not advocating either way at the moment, but I don't think the fines are justified. Frankly, as a fan to whom 50k is a massive chunk of money, it's actually kind of insulting that a guy gets docked that kind of pay for a hit that the league, its TV coverage, and its merchandise all wholeheartedly endorse.