Harrison's not gonna retire. Said he's not gonna let the NFL force him out of playing a game he loves because of a few stupid rule changes, not to mention he doesn't wanna let down his family, teammates, and all of Steeler Nation. Kudos to James Harrison. I hope he wreaks havoc the rest of the season. Now onto the bigger issue...
Goodell is an absolute fool and is making a mockery out of the NFL. He's pussifying the game and is turning it into the National Flag League. They may aswell change the lyrics to the Monday Night Football theme song and make it "are you ready for some two handed touch football?!?!"
The only cheap/dirty/illegal hit on the weekend was the one by Merriweather on Heap. He launched himself helmet first at Heap, a defenseless reciever, and IMO was clearly head hunting. He got fined $50k for that. The Robinson hit on Jackson was fine. That was a great, legal hit. He also got fined $50k. Harrison's hit on Cribbs was fine and was ruled legal. His other hit on Massaquoi though was ruled illegal, which is absolutely ridiculous. I guess you're not allowed to jack players up anymore. What's even more ridiculous is the fact he got fined the most, $75k. WTF is the league doing? There's no consistency there what so ever.
If you can't hit a reciever like that anymore whose going across the middle of the field, then they may aswell ban contact in the NFL all together and just call it soccer. It's a joke. What's next? Hamstring injuries are up... Goodell's gonna start suspending players for running too fast. Wouldn't surprise me.
He's a hypocrite aswell. Harrison gets made an example of and gets fined $75k for, supposably, an illegal hit, yet the NFL is selling photos of that exact same hit on Massaquoi ranging anywhere from $15.95 to $249.95. Are you fuking serious?
As for the illegal and "devastating hits", from a very young age, defenders are taught to aim for the chest and drive up into the facemask, which has always been a legal hit, yet after one weekend of a couple of big hits and concussions, that's all of a sudden an illegal hit now and you can get suspended for it. Dirty hits and blatant helmet to helmet hits I can understand, I'm all for player safety too, as I'm sure every fan is, yet when they come out and say "devastating hits" will also be under review now, they're basically eliminating big hits from the game all together, which is gonna hinder those physical, intimidating defences like the Steelers, Ravens, and Jets, arguably 3 of the top 5 teams in the league atm. What a joke! What are they expecting the players to do now? You know what they're gonna do? They're gonna start aiming low and diving at players hips, knees, and ankles, which is worse IMO. Aiming high and going for the chest is the way to do it, because diving full speed at a players hips, knees, or ankles is gonna start ending careers. There's gonna be players getting flipped up and landing on their necks due to players grass cutting them and diving extremely low, and there's also gonna be a major increase in knee injuries and blown out knees, which IMO is the biggest reason why these new rule changes are a massive mistake. With how fast the game is these days, diving helmet first at a players hip is going to cause a few hip replacements too. Not to mention that a defender diving low at a players knees or hips is gonna give him a higher chance of concussion. Compare helmets bouncing off of a players chest where there's padding and leeway as oppose to a defenders helmet bouncing off of knees and hips, pure bone that's just not gonna give. There's gonna be concussions to defenders because they're wreckless. With the helmet and all that padding on, they think they're invinsible at times and just can't get injured. They're mot gonna think twice about doing it, because in the rule book, it's legal. Asked what the NFL think's about defenders diving low and taking out knees, one spokesperson said it's a non-issue for them, because concussions are life altering and blown out knees are only career altering. WTF? I'm sure RB's and WR's are gonna be feeling good about that.
Goodell's a douchebag. He says he's all about player safety and blah blah blah, yet he's pushing to extend the season to 18 games. Can this guy be anymore of a fraud?
what is a major over reaction by the NFL, what may lead to the retirement of Pro Bowl linebacker for Pittsburgh Steelers James Harrison after he copped a $75k fine for helmet to helmet contact to Browns WR Josh Cribbs & Mohamed Massaquoi .......
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