jlouhill

I'm with xan and oak on this. I don't have a problem with the powers that be trying to protect the players. Have they gone overboard? In some regards, yes. But, as xan pointed out, players today are bigger, stronger, faster (cue 6 million dollar man music). It wasn't too many years ago as I watched players who seemingly were more concerned with getting on SportsCenter Highlights than playing the game. They were going out of their way to lay down the BIG HIT. I said to myself then if something isn't done someone will, not may, but will get killed on the field. I loved the Steel Curtain of the 70's. Lambert was my favorite and if you'll notice in the attached video the majority of the hits he made were legal and with his head up. So it can be done. Too many players just got it in their heads that they can't play the game unless they can use their heads as a weapon. They got too used to lowering the head to make the massive hit so it became commonplace.
At the end of the day, you can't take the violence out of a violent sport and the guys who play this game know early on what they have signed up for. But I do believe that players need to re-learn how to tackle without thinking they have to decapitate the opposing player to do it.
Ok, I'll get off my soap box now.