For the officiating committee and the zebras on the field to say the hit on Drew Brees was "unnecessary roughness" galls me to no end. The justification for this so-called rule is to better protect players from the violence that IS football. My questions is "why"? Football is a violent, contact sport. It's meant to be. Any football player who frets over how rough the game is should consider playing baseball or curling. Millionaires are playing the game and they are more concerned about their checkbooks rather than their performance. The threat of season or career ending injuries would threaten their lucrative salaries. Seems ironic that back in the day when players had to get second jobs in the off season to pay the bills, the amount of violence was far greater than it is today. Other than the deception created by the NFL regarding the severity of concussions, for the most part everyone knew the risks and dangers of playing the game and it was accepted. If you ask me, I think the larger the salaries, the greater the violence. Give me $10 million dollars and I'll be anyone's punching bag for a few months out of the year. The lie has grown to such proportions that many are starting to believe it to be true. This has nothing to do with the protection of the players. Chop blocks on defensive linemen is not only legal but encouraged. The simple fact of the matter is that the NFL is not about competition, it's about revenue. It's all about ticket and merchandise sales, marketing revenues and profit margins. Men like Ronnie Lott and Lawrence Taylor could never compete in today's NFL for the simple fact they couldn't afford to pay all the fines levied by the NFL bean counters. Superstars such as Drew Brees and Tom Brady, who've amassed insane statistics over the past several years, are under greater protection by the NFL than a person who's under the witness protection plan. I'm of the mind that these superstars wouldn't have the statistics they have if they didn't have the luxury of the no-touch rules that they currently enjoy today. Hell, just two weeks ago his royal highness Peyton Manning had his ankle rolled up on and immediately the talk switched to modifying the rules to provide even MORE protection for the quarterback. Oh, and the NFL was considering fining the guy who committed this HORRIBLE crime of trying to tackle the quarterback.
There's a saying that defenses win championships and offenses sell tickets. That is very much true. The constant rule changes that restrict the defenses from actually defending gives the offense such a lopsided advantage that scores are soaring and offensive records are dropping at an incredible rate. Americans want to see points on the board, or so we have been conditioned to believe so. It's no wonder soccer has never really taken off in this country. Low scoring games are just another yawn festival. It's also true that without all the great stars of the game, who's really going to watch? Stars get hurt and ticket sales drop, it's a known fact. Who wants to pay a week's wage to watch a sloppy game of football by a bunch of understudies? But hey, injuries heal and the stars re-emerged. But with every booboo suffered by a quarterback the NFL takes even greater steps to protect their cash cows.
It's embarrassing for me to realize I've gotten so upset over the success or failure of a bunch of millionaires who "play" for a living. Like movie celebrities that get paid stupid amounts of money to play make believe, much like we did as kids. But don't get me started on that group. I'm sad that the teams and heroes I admired as a child no longer exist. These days the NFL, along with most other professional sports, is all big business. A Super Bowl ring is merely a byproduct of what really matters to the players, coaches, owners and stakeholders…. money!
I can't bring myself to watch the games any more. It's not the football I grew to know and love. I'll always be a devoted 49er fan and I'll maintain hopes that common sense might some day prevail, but I'm not holding my breath. Football is heading down the path of professional wrestling. It's a just show, manipulated and modified in order to entice the mob to spend money they don't have in order to make rich people richer.
Drink up, people. I'm done here.
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