THUMPER;3310830 said:
The play was over and it was a situation that was already covered by the rules in that Haynesworth was slapped with an unsportsmanlike penalty as well as a fine later on.
I think I addressed this point in an earlier post. I referenced fitting standards as a better focus for the competition committee in that post.
Then they should simply outlaw physical contact of any kind if they are concerned about the players possibly getting hurt. two-hand touch or flags are the next step if they are truly concerned about injuries. In fact they should just play football on an X-BOX or Wii to completely avoid any serious injuries. Again, this is football, it is a violent and dangerous game and should stay that way.
Not to be rude, but I'm not sure which league you have been watching? Since I began watching the NFL in the early 70's, many posters have started before me, my opinion of what has been happening to the NFL and football in general is rules and standards have been constantly evolving to mitigate the possibility of serious injuries.
No one has ever discussed the nature of football, not to my knowledge, and not accepted a certain amount of violence due to the contact. I don't know of any situation where people have openly supported the game being "dangerous".
I would suggest "good luck" to you on trying to keep the game "dangerous" what I have seen from the NFL is they trying to accomplish the contrary.
To my knowledge, the case you make has never resulted in a serious injury. In fact most serious injuries in football are caused by helmets rather than the lack of them.
I don't have stats on injuries in football caused by the loss of helmets. I won't even try to debate on this. I don't think the comp committee is actually debating this point based on stats. Rather I think they are trying to address a concern and following a mandate most likely forwarded by their commissioner, their owners, their coaches, their players and association or any combination of the fore mentioned groups.
As for serious football injuries being caused by helmets I think that this is a grossly inaccurate global statement. Helmets don't cause injuries the incorrect use of the helmet in the game is a more plausible cause.
And there are numerous injuries, serious ones, that are not caused by helmets. Pick all the knee injuries on the field year after year. Irvin's career ending incident. Theismann's horrific leg break. We can on and on.
That's why the league and football in general is trying to address the use of the football helmet. Most agree that much of the injuries due to helmet to helmet contact or leading with your head to tackle can prevent the serious spinal injuries that make people dread to be a part of that situation.
That is a different issue altogether and has nothing to do with injuries. If they are concerned about helmets coming off due to hairstyles or faulty chinstraps then THOSE things should be regulated. They regulate things like socks not being pulled up all the way (and fine players for it), why not hairstyles or chinstraps?
A helmet coming off is a helmet coming off. The comp committee in my opinion is not addressing the issue in its full entirety. They are focusing on a reactionary solution. "What to do when the helmet comes off?" They really should add to that, "What standards should we apply to minimize the occurrence of helmets coming off?"
