Professor Polamalu Has It Right

“Polamalu says NFL’s fines for hits more about money, not player safety”

That’s the headline attached to a story that ran this morning on ESPN.com. The gist? Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, one of our favorite players and an honorary member of our NFL All F-U-Up Team, says the NFL is taking the whole fining-guys-for-hits thing way too far.

His argument is that it’s more about the money than any real concern about players’ safety. He also goes further to make some comments on what it says about the evolution of the game which we couldn’t agree with more. ESPN’s own Mark Schlereth used Troy’s statements to similary take issue with the League.

Here’s all we can say. A-f-in-men, sirs. Kudos to Troy for saying what we’ve been yelling about time and again on this blog and for years prior. He’s absolutely, 100%, dead-on-balls accurate in his statements. And this is the line that really had us vigorously nodding our heads in emphatic agreement:

“…regarding the evolution of football, it’s becoming more and more flag football, two-hand touch,” Polamalu said. “We’ve really lost the essence of what real American football is about.”

We couldn’t have said it much better ourselves. Instead of ranting on a familiar track, you can just re-read our prior rhetoric here. I know it sounds horribly trite and cliche (and seemingly obvious), but football is a violent sport. It’s brutality is an important factor in its enormous popularity. Hitting the quarterback, a receiver or running back as hard as you possibly can is inherent to the mentality, culture and essence of the game. Like Troy says, if not, than what are we playing, here?

As much as I love football and the NFL, this is the one issue that just absolutely makes my skin crawl. It grinds my gears, you see. You want to suspend and fine guys for beating their girlfriend, having an armory worth of weapons in their homes or otherwise damaging the image of the League? I’m fine with that. Levying absurd financial penalties and suspending guys for making a hit on a receiver in the end zone with the ball in plain view and very much up-for-grabs? Absolutely unacceptable. That’s exactly how I was taught to play the game. It’s the right way to play this game.

While we’re at it, why don’t we start tossing pitchers out of games for throwing inside? Maybe a nice juicy suspension for a hard foul to prevent a layup? Oh yes, that’s right…disgusting. Next thing we know we’ll have hearings over break up slides at second base.

I weep for this generation.