Hard Hits and the NFL

*Originally printed in The Dickinsonian

Almost 90 years after the National Football League’s inception, one of the most popular organizations in America is struggling with the one component that established its popularity: the hard hitting.

Football has always been known for its physicality, to the point where “smashmouth” and “football” might as well be white on rice. From the play-to-play lineman pad-smashing to the grass-mouthed quarterback sacks, pigskin is a sport in which people pay big money to see men hurt each other for every single minute of a stop filled hour. There are millions of jerseys ironed, pizzas ordered, and beer hats filled waiting for 1 p.m. on Sunday to see pure body smashing. But the NFL doesn’t have a problem with the fans when it comes to brutality; the problem lies with the players. With defensemen like Houston’s Mario Williams and Denver’s Elvis Dumerville being bred for size, quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers are being dragged off the field by the dozen. Star quarterbacks Tom Brady and Carson Palmer were removed for the season for low hits by these men that are paid to hurt, and you bet the NFL knows the impact this will have on jersey sales. They know that fans also open their wallets to see Tom Brady zing a perfect pass to Wes Welker, two victims of recent hits that have echoed in NFL conference rooms.

Ryan Clark, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ safety who recently said to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he will “go try and hurt some people” in his next game, hit Wes Welker into next weekend with a blindsided hit last season that stirred up plenty of controversy about hitting defenseless receivers. The league has picked up on the mentality, and they’re cracking down. Clark didn’t get a penalty for the concussion causing crash, but the league fined him after the game. Penalty flags are flying and fines are being charged to defensemen left and right.

But player reaction is mixed. Steeler teammates Troy Polamalu and Hines Ward have been constant critics of the league’s apparent attempt to transition. As reported on www.pittsburghlive.com, Polamalu has gone so far as to say the NFL is becoming a “pansy league” with its new rules and floating fines. Players are no longer allowed to play the game they have grown up playing. Heck, Ward got his own rule put in place this past season. After breaking the jaw of linebacker Keith Rivers from a legal offensive block, the league is now prohibiting high blindside blocks. They’ve both remained adamant that hard hits are part of the game they’re taught and paid to play, and plenty of players agree. Yet many players are concerned with the physicality that has developed throughout the years, and are happy that the league is cracking down. These days the defensemen are bigger, stronger, faster and prone to do damage.

Quarterbacks are sprinting to save their bodies from season-long injuries. Recently, Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer told Peter King in the Sept. 7 issue of Sports Illustrated that “the truth is…someone is going to die here in the NFL. It’s going to happen.” Palmer continued with reasonable worry, “Everyone talks about the good old days, when guys were tough and quarterbacks got crushed all the time, but back in the day, there weren't defensive ends that were Mario Williams -- 6’-7’’, 300 pounds, 10 percent body fat, running a 4.7 40.” Further concern has echoed from recent results of brain studies relating to football players. Congressmen are concerned with the long term effects of constant helmet banging, as these studies have shown that it’s extremely detrimental to the mental well-being of these athletes. One congresswoman went so far as to compare the NFL to tobacco companies in the pre-90s, pretending that the violent nature of the sport is not an issue or not their problem.

The league is dealing with a double edged sword. If they continue to lessen the physicality of the game through hard fines and strict rules, the game will change completely. The fans that thrived on pad-busting body smashes will have to settle for bland tackling and offensive shootouts. The NFL will lose the core of its audience because it will lose its identity. But if the league lets loose the 6’-6’’ 240 pound defensemen to bring terror, can they do it without injuring or perhaps killing people? Can they crack down in the right ways to maintain the ever popular physicality and destroy any notion of a tragic collision?

Probably not.

These men are paid big money to play the game. With the money, comes the risk of being injured, and the agreement that they will compete with the biggest and best in pro football. With bigger defensemen come bigger receivers and more elusive quarterbacks, and thus the game adapts in that manner. But the league might want to stop and think before it changes the physicality of the game because some things have stayed the same for a reason. The beer hats, the jerseys, the tailgating and, most importantly, the physicality are components that the league need to maintain for the sake of the nature of the game. Injuries or not, it’s football. Smashmouth football.