Goodell Defends Safety-Driven Rules Changes

BasX · Mar 28, 2009

In his Friday interview with Pat Kirwan and Tim Ryan of Sirius NFL Radio’s Movin’ the Chains, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed recent rule changes regarding subjects such as low hits on the quarterback’s legs and helmet-to-helmet crackback blocks.

“The rule changes that we made take some techniques out of the game that have just increased the risk for player injury and I think it will make the game safer for those players, ultimately better for the fans, and will improve the quality of our game overall,” Goodell said. “And I don’t think it’ll change the game, honestly, other than the safety matter.”

Goodell specifically responded to concerns articulated by players like Rodney Harrison that the changes will make the game “soft.”

“Yeah, I heard that all last season too,” Goodell said, “and no one called the game soft late last year. Early in the season we were enforcing the rules rather aggressively because we felt that it was endangering our players. There were some high profile comments about how it was changing the game significantly. But as you look back through the history of the game that’s always the case.

“When we took the head slap out, when we made a lot of other changes people thought, ‘Oh, there goes the game of football.’ It’s just not true. It’s an aggressive game. There are just certain techniques that I think really can injure the players and I think add to the risk that are unnecessary. I don’t think the fans saw that at the end of the season. We never heard it and I think it cleared it up a great deal. And I think that will be the case this upcoming season.”

We agree on this one, and we continue to be befuddled by the fact that some players are rejecting efforts to protect them against the kinds of injuries that could significantly impact their lives after they retire from the game.

The basic problem is that most of these guys are in their 20s, and they simply aren’t wired to take a long-term view of their lives. They’re living for now, which is fine for now.

When they’re older and also able to function like normal humans beings because they didn’t have 20 undiagnosed concussions during their playing days, hopefully they’ll realize that the league did them a big favor.
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http://www.profootballtalk.com/2009/03/28/goodell-defends-safety-driven-rules-changes/

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Goodell Defends Safety-Driven Rules Changes

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Goodell Defends Safety-Driven Rules Changes

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