New Safety Rules and Standards in the NFL

What’s your opinion on the new controversial safety rules in the NFL? Are you for or against them? Many players in the league are against them. They've even took to social media such as Twitter to let their outrage be heard publicly. Some have even openly admitted that they were still going to break the rules, even though a costly fine was to follow if they broke the rules. Do you think they are being unreasonable for this? In this essay, you will find both the pros and the cons of several new widely debated rules. They include the new “tuck rule”, the “targeting rule”, the “helmet to helmet rule”, and the pros and cons to the new hotly debated topic of the new “roughing the quarterback” rules.

The new helmet to helmet rule is the first topic of debate. One thing scientists and neurologists have tested many players, and retired players, and have found that damage to the brain caused by a concussion, can last for decades if not given the right amount of time to heal (Nordquist). They also found abnormal brain wave activity years after several violent concussions in a row. They also found partial wasting away of the motor pathway, which can cause slight ADD. Thirty years after retiring, some NFL players who had had concussions, were experiencing symptoms similar to those of early Parkinson's disease. In addition to that, some signs of early Alzheimer’s effects were found (Nordqvist). A concussion is an injury of a soft structure, such as the brain, resulting from a violent blow or shaking (Nordqvist). Symptoms of concussions include temporary loss of brain function which can result in cognitive, confusion, vomiting, nausea, headache, depression, disturbed sleep, moodiness, and amnesia (Nordqvist). Even when concussion symptoms seem ...

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...ensive players to tackle them (Farmer). On top of the defenses enragement by these new standards, 86.6% of fans feel quarterbacks are protected. Even more fans thought this after some quarterbacks openly admitted to purposely positioning themselves for blows to the head, just to draw a flag from the ref.

So as you can see, there are many points to both sides of this argument. There are both pros and cons to the new helmet to helmet rules, targeting rule, tuck rule, and the new roughing the passer standards. As you can tell from the content stated above, there is almost an equal amount of pros and cons for the helmet to helmet rule. As for the tuck rule and targeting rule, there are more cons to this topic. Finally, there were more cons to the new standards on the new roughing the passer rule. The fans obviously don’t like these new rules and neither do the players.