NFL Revisiting Helmet-to-Helmet Hit Rules
The NFL is heading into it’s 7th week of regular season games but not without the NFL policy makers evaluating the rules for helmet-to-helmet and other violent hits after week 6 took it’s toll on a plethora of players. CNN has the story posted on their homepage today reporting that the NFL’s Mohamad Massaquoi, (Cleveland Browns), Joshua Cribbs (Cleveland Browns), Todd Heap (Baltimore Ravens), DeSean Jackson (Philadelphia Eagles), Dunta Robinson (Atlanta Falcons) and Zack Follett (Detroit Lions) all fell victim to some sort of head or other serious injury (including concussions) stemming from helmet-to-helmet hits or other types of head on collisions or violent hits taken while being completely defenseless. In a worse situation Saturday, college football’s Eric LeGrand (Rutgers) was left paralyzed from the neck down after attempting a tackle.
The general consensus after a weekend long observance of serious injuries sustained through NFL and college football is that the rules need to me much stricter regarding blows to the head and hits on defenseless players. Immediate ejections need to result, fines need to be greater and suspensions must be longer. The number of athletes involved in contact sports are all too often finding themselves headed to a skilled nursing facility to undergo long term traumatic brain injury rehabilitation or sustained spinal cord rehabilitation. Hopefully the reevaluation of the NFL policies will help ward off the frequency at which these injuries take place.
