NFL Needs To Be Careful

There's a lot the NFL needs to be careful of these days. Number one is still avoiding a lockout next year, but this week's topic is avoiding changing how the game we love is played.   The NFL is stepping in with fines, and possible suspensions, on what they deem "dirty" hits. They need to be very careful on how they go about with these fines and how to protect players without ruining the game and product on the field.

I've sat on this dilemma for a minute or two and I'm ready to go helmet-to-helmet on it.

The NFL was wrong to fine James Harrison $75 grand for the hits he put on two Browns receivers. He should quote Col. Nathan Jessep in A Few Good Men, "I did my job and I'll do it again." That's how Harrison plays football, that's how he became Defensive Player of the Year, and he should be concerned with how the league is going to be enforcing these rules. Harrison was simply a scapegoat after last weekend.

If both Browns players, Josh Cribbs and Mohamed Massaquoi, weren't concussed, Harrison doesn't get fined. It's not even an issue. But because they suffered concussions, people were up in arms. I seen harder, bigger hits on kickoffs. I don't want to down play the magnitude of Harrison's hits on Cribbs and Massaquoi, they were BIG, but they happen in nearly every game.

An example of a play that nobody paid any attention because there wasn't a concussion: Eagles-Redskins game. Redskins kicking off to Jorrick Calvin. Phillip Daniels, #93 for the Redskins, a DE, absolutely blows him up with a helmet-to-helmet that was the biggest hit I saw that weekend. I rewound it 4-5 times. But Calvin hopped right up (somehow) and ran off the field. That same hit probably concusses another player. I have scoured the internet looking for it but because it was just a standard 20-yard return it's vanished into thin air, with the hundreds of other hits that may now be fineable, if someone is knocked out of the game. I never saw it on a highlight. (Maybe it was featured on "jack'ed up," I don't know, I don't watch MNF pregame.)

The hits last weekend need to be addressed. When I saw the Dunta Robinson hit on DeSean Jackson, I squirmed. I don't want to see hits like that, especially when both players are down, not moving. But it's part of the NFL, and to a certain extent, unavoidable. NO player should launch with the helmet into the helmet of a defenseless receiver but the line is so fine it's easy to see why people like Harrison are concerned with how they can be effective without getting fined, or suspended.

We all want to see the players protected but the players themselves don't seem to think it's necessary. Obviously the defensive players think it's a bad idea but even Josh Cribbs told Jim Rome, "It's part of the game, which I love dearly. It's what we signed up for." That last sentence seems to be the mantra for ALL NFL players. They know what can happen out there, they signed up to be a part of it, and are paid well to put themselves in harm's way.

Another way to avoid these hits on defenseless receivers like Jackson, Massaquoi and Jordan Shipley a few weeks ago is for QBs not to hang them out to dry. More blame goes to the QB on those hits than anyone wants to say.

Big hits, "dirty hits," egregious hits, whatever you want to call them, are not new to the NFL. The league overreacted after a weekend that featured what they felt were too many. The NFL needs to be very careful on how they go about "protecting their players." Like the NBA with its new technical foul policy, the league may think it's doing people a favor but the product we're watching will be effected and compromised.

The NFL must be clear on how they want to enforce these rules and releasing a video mid-week might not be the best option. I still don't know if Dunta Robinson's hit was illegal or not. Some say yes (league,) others say no (players, analysts.) I'm okay with a fine for that one and Brandon Meriweather's hit on Todd Heap. But what happens when a ref ejects or suspends someone for a questionable hit? A whole new storm will blow into town.

We all want players to be safe, and dirty hits can't be tolerated but the NFL might have let this go too far to do anything about it. Trying to teach everyone how to tackle differently, and less effectively for some, after they've succeed doing it another way is ludicrous. On top of that, each person has a different opinion on what's a dirty hit. Policing egregious hits and helmet-to-helmet contact will be an arduous task, as will maintaining the health of the players and the integrity of the league.