The National Football League was formed on August 20, 1920. Players wore pads, not quite as protective as the ones today, helmets and legs pads. Even though their protective gear was not as advanced as the gear today they still made contact with the players of the opposing teams. As the years progressed the league made several changes to the rules due to player safety. They invented better protective gear for the players and they also made stricter rules regarding playing guidelines. The main goal of those rules, like the targeting rule that is so controversial today, is to protect the players. The targeting rule itself states that no player shall target and initiate contact against an opponent with the crown of his helmet, when in question, it is a foul (Targeting). Although helmet to helmet hits come along with the game of football, the targeting rule is an attempt at making the game safer without changing its integrity.
With that being said, helmet to helmet hits are becoming a major concern in the National Football League because they can severely injure both the deliverer and receiver of the hit. These collisions
The players that are receiving these hits are considered to be defenseless, someone who is not in position to defend himself from an oncoming hit (NFL Rules and Regulations). Some examples include: a player in the act of or just after throwing a pass, a receiver attempting to catch a pass or one who has completed a pass and has not had the time to protect himself or has not clearly become a ball carrier, a player on the ground, a kick returner attempting to catch or recover a kick, a player already obviously out of the play, a quarterback any time after a change of possession, and a ball carrier whose forward progress has been stopped (Targeting). These types of hits, as of 2010, are automatically ruled a penalty whether the hit was intentional or
The average NFL player takes up to 1,000 blows to the head throughout their football career. Some of those blows can have the force of a sledgehammer (“RealNatural”). Based on a research study by Dr. Jesse David, there were 265 concussions reported in the 2012 season, during the 2011 season there were 266 concussions, and 270 concussions in 2010 season (Kacsmar). It has been known that repeated blows to the head can cause long-term brain damage since at least the 1950’s, long before most of the NFL players had begun their careers (“RealNatural”). Past infractions of the NFL have already resulted in over 4,500 forme...
intentional injuries ....When someone decides they don't like you and walk up to you and punch you in the nose.
Flag football was created in 1933, and was played by many military officers by the 1940s. The soldiers could not play tackle football due to the risk of injure. The officers needed to be uninjured for battles. When the officers went back home to their families they brought flag football home with them. Early leagues began in the 1960s and the first flag football association was formed. The National Touch Football League changed the rules to touching being the way to “tackle” a player instead of the grabbing the flag. Flag football infiltrated colleges and championships started to be held by various universities. Flag football went pro in 1997 and the Professional Flag Football League, Inc. was formed.
The National Football League is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The NFL was founded in 1920s and ever since then has been a representative of the "All-American, Family Entertainment, Sport". Football is played from kids starting at age five to adulthood and is very popular throughout different races and social classes. With the increase of people playing football, came the increase of the sports related injuries.
The targeting rule will help to reduce the number of head injuries received by football players, both in college and the NFL, that lead to lifelong health issues. As Geoff Calkins from The Commercial Appeal notes in his article about Brian McCrary, there are many former college football players who suffer from moderate to severe brain damage later in life due to playing college football and having received targeted hits. The long-term effects of these head injuries suffered in the game are just being understood and acknowledged (Johnson). Andy Staples, from Sports Illustrated, notes that the targeting rule is the committees attempt to recognize the problem and help to make football a safer sport. The main purpose of the rule is to “save players’ brains” from permanent damage, with the secondary purpose to help make the sport safer (Couch). Football is a contact sport, but with this ...
What is the safest way to hit someone with a bone crushing tackle? The National Football League (NFL) is trying to protect its players from getting smashed. Two weeks into the 2015 season 15 percent of all NFL players were dealing with some sort of injury. That is quite the amount of players to be hurt by just week two in a season. The NFL is wanting to make the safe, “but ‘safe football’ is a mincing of words (Jackson, 2016, pg. 1).” That was said by Nate Jackson from the New York Times. Jackson wants to change the NFL’s play clock from the current 40 seconds, and shorten it to a whopping 25 seconds. The author uses ethos, pathos, logos to show why the NFL’s 40 second play clock needs to be changed to 25 seconds if it wants to continue to
The rules that the NFL is changing is rules that deal with the head like targeting, and leading with the head. The rule change with a huge uproar as the kick off, moving the ball from the twenty to the thirty yard line.
The number of concussions in professional and amateur football has been rising and has sparked much controversy in recent years. These concussions are most likely linked with disease and even the deaths of some pro and semi-pro football players. New research is attempting to solve the problem but the issue is still prevalent in football today.
A. Subpoint: Many people do not like to focus on the violent nature of the game. Big hits and tackles are frequently praised and seen on top plays. But there are too many cases where these big hits result in serious concussions.
First the rule in the NFL was that the play would be an automatic penalty, would result in player fine, and an additional fifteen yards would be added from where the foul was committed. The play is reviewable; however, if the call on the field does not stand the player is not fined, but it is still a fifteen yard penalty. A lot of coaches and other National Football League associates disagreed with that section of the rule and after debates and discussions the rule was changed. As of the season, if the play is reviewed and there is not an actual penalty then
Football is a relatively dangerous sport. In the game, the whole body is open to taking shots from opposing teams every play, but the most dangerous area to be hit is the head. Hits that lead to players having their heads
In the modern day United States the sport American football has become not only entertainment but also a tradition whether it’s watching the BCS college championship or watching the super bowl with the family. The sport of American football is unique to the United States and has grown and became iconic over the years and has become a part of many Americans lives. American Football was made in 1869 and was modeled after the sport of rugby. They took the basics of rugby and changed it to make it fit better for them. The game has changed over the years but it also affected many Americans as the tradition of Monday Night football has begun. The game has had problems with the United States government as it was said to be too dangerous to play, this lead to an upgrade in the equipment and they tried very hard to make the equipment well ensuring player safety throughout the sport.
more injuries at the same time the game of football was growing in America. That was when
When it comes to physical contact sports, there are two categories, collision sports and tackling sports. American football, ice hockey, lacrosse, boxing, and many more are considered collision sports. Tackling sports would consider rugby, Gaelic football, Australian rules football, and even soccer as some of the world’s tackling sports. A collision sport is way more dangerous than a tackling one. For example, in a football game, it is pretty typical to see players lose their helmet’s, ripped out of their jersey’s, and be taken off the field by ambulance. Reason being is because nowadays players feel like they are Iron Man...
We see many players that always aim at the heads of other players when going for a tackle and that is very dangerous and unnecessary. Improve the concussion policy in the NFL. I witnessed a game where I was watching the Houston Texan’s quarterback Tom Savage took a direct hit to the head and started spazzing out while lying on the ground in game. It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. But the scarier thing is that the coaching staff allowed him to stay in the game after the next play! That is just absurd, and something needs to be done with the current policy because the NFL could be sued for a lot of money if this continues. Lastly, they should improve the helmets of the players. They NFL should invest money in new ways to make the helmets with softer inside and more absorbents of blows to the head. This could make the game safer and more fun for the players and fans watching at