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The Spectacle Blog
The NFL is considering rules changes that would make it a personal foul for running backs to lower their heads and plow into tacklers. None of your John Riggins or Jim Brown nonsense in the kinder, gentler NFL.
Rich McKay, chairman (is the NFL insisting on chairperson yet?) of the NFL Competition Committee, calls the proposed change in the game a “pure and simple player safety rule.” He added that the NFL believes it is time “to address the situation in space where a runner or a tackler has a choice of how to approach his opponent.”
Huh? I’m sure this last statement is a real head-scratcher to every running back and tackler in the NFL. But not to worry, the NFL running back would not be completely neutered under the proposed rule. The ball carrier would still be allowed the lower his shoulder and to drop his head to protect the ball. And he would not be required to say, “Mother, may I?” before running past a tackler, nor would he be required, as premature and erroneous reports have it, to wear a dress on the field.
OK, this stuff is easy to ridicule. I know we’re trying to make a fundamentally unsafe game, safe. But as some point these well-intentioned efforts take on the flakey aspect of Billy Bob’s surgeon general, Joycelyn Elders, who demanded safer bullets.
Bullets aren’t safe, or at least if made safe wouldn’t be bullets. The same can be said of football. We’re only now beginning to understand the price athletes pay for playing this gladiator sport. New rules could probably lower that price a bit. But at some point, football would cease to be football. And fans would cease to care about it.
If this new rule is adopted, does this mean we have to kick Riggins and Brown out of the Football Hall of Fame? Or at least put them in the time-out room for a quarter or two?
View all comments (9) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Larry Thornberry
http://spectator.org/blog/2013/03/15/the-riggins-rule
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Bob K| 3.15.13 @ 6:34PM
I remember when Jim Taylor played Fullback for Green Bay. He did this all the time. One time he got hit with an "unnecessary roughness" penalty for doing it!
Bob K| 3.15.13 @ 6:39PM
Or how about the time when Bronko Nagurski ran over three guys while scoring a touchdown. The goal post stopped him and knocked him down. When he went back to the sidelines he is supposed to have said the the 1st 3 guys were no problem but "that last guy was some tough SOB!"
Occam's Tool| 3.15.13 @ 7:48PM
They get paid for playing a rough, violent sport. Many of them are vicious thugs. Few are Gentlemen. Who cares what they do?
JP| 3.15.13 @ 10:52PM
"The same can be said of football. We’re only now beginning to understand the price athletes pay for playing this gladiator sport."
Speak for yourself. I think most people know that football is a highly dangerous sport. It's always been controlled violence. The players know this. And if one consider that 85% of the players play 3 years or less, then it isn't difficult to think that there is more at play. Over a 1000 former players have put forth a huge multi-million dollar law suit. The NFL brings in $9 billion a year, split between the owners and players union. The trial lawyers smell big bucks. And the NFL is playing the game.
I'm not a huge fan the of the NFL. But, let's not get metrosexual here and act like we didn't realize that bad things can happen when a 230lb fullback running full steam at a 365lb DT collide.
Bob K| 3.16.13 @ 9:41AM
Excellent points above.
I wonder when Mr. Thornberry is going to write a column about the greed of the legal profession.
I wonder when ANY writer for American Spectator is going to do it. There was a time in it's early days that AS would have taken them on. The recent change in the format of the magazine brings those good old days back to mind!
The US Tort bar is perhaps the most corrupt segment of American Society and turning a few talented writers loose on those bastards would be a cleansing event for Conservatism!
Butch| 3.16.13 @ 3:58PM
You nailed it, JD. This is all about class-action lawsuits brought on behalf of former players and the families of deceased players. Those old guys didn't make near as much money as they do nowadays.
I would add one more factor. I think they fear someone getting killed during a game, inviting a feminist/metrosexual/left-wing war on manhood.
JGW| 3.16.13 @ 9:41AM
Right! Stick that head up so the linbackers can "clothesline" you!
Butch| 3.16.13 @ 3:59PM
Emmit Smith had some choice words about that yesterday. Talk about concussions: Preseeeent Chin!
JimH| 3.16.13 @ 10:24AM
What I'd like to see is a fair application of the face mask rule. If the defense can't grab or touch it, neither should the running back be allowed to hit the mask or helmet of the defense.