First off the Cardinals were playing the Jets, and secondly I understand your opinion completely, but if what you are asking for became part of regular game play and Crabtree ends up with a broken jaw due to a helmet to helmet hit “like the one Boldin took”, I would be infuriated with the player that committed to hit.

Remember the jets game when Patrick Willis totally laid out that guy on the Jets (Brad Smith I think). That was a type of hit that would get you fined, but he didn’t. Why is that?

but I get mad at all of the QB saving rules. If you give an NFL QB a dirty look or so much as breathe on them, it’s 15 yards. I’m all for protecting players when they are somewhat defenseless, but QBs are STILL football players. That’s what annoys me.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with establishing controls on the quality of violence on the sport. And if a guy can extend his career for five years by ducking a few tackles in garbage time, I don’t care.

I shouldn’t go on, though. I made the mistake of listening to Barbieri today, so I’m particularly on edge about the “it used to be BETTER back in THE DAY” lament. Even morese than I am by default.

Needless to say, I get what you’re saying. But I don’t agree with it.

happen. Rules are put in place to help prevent injuries. sometimes they seem sappy, but taking away brutal violence and replacing it with regular violence isn’t totally terrible.

Back in the day, players were allowed to clothesline tackle. Can you imagine how severe the injuries would be today if that were the case?

I’m all for the safety of the players, because injuries suck already, we don’t need more of them. Helmet to Helmet can’t be avoided sometimes, but they also have to balance out the game. A running back can put his head down and spear you with his helmet, but when a DB does it, its a fine. There needs to be a finer line indeed.

I don’t think the game of football has declined or turned soft to the extent that you feel it has. The players are still going to find a way to play around the dumb rules. You’ve still got coaches like Mike Singletary with the “hit ’em in the mouth” philosophy of football. You’ve still got badasses like Polamalu and Willis playing hard and making amazing hits. And no matter what, some of the panty-waists in the NFL management are going to still whine and worry about public opinion, possible lawsuits, and how they can think of new rules to piss off the fans.

What new rule changes do we have again this offseason? (I looked them up on Deadspin)

The “Brady Rule” – defensive lineman who have been chopped block to the ground will no longer be allowed to lunge at a quarterback’s legs, a technique sometimes referred to as “tackling.” – totally gay, and obviously pressured into a rule by east coast Brady-lovers

2 – No blind hits or blocks to the head & 3 – No contact to the head of a “defenseless receiver” – basically just codifying fair play: Don’t hit a guy when he doesn’t have the ball and he’s not looking. – Hmmm, I honestly don’t mind these rules, although I think players could already get in trouble to doing this, so the rules seem sort of superfluous.

4 – No more than five players bunched together on an onside kick – pure tripe, that’s how you recover an onside kick, this is really the NFL screwing with the game just to try and prevent injuries, bullshit I say

5 – No more “wedges” on kickoffs – Bennett at Deadspin asks if this will revolutionize kickoffs during the game “or will the players do the exact same thing … only slightly further apart? Yeah, probably that one.” – another totally lame & pointless rule

Annoying as heck, agreed – it’s not ruining the game though, and I think there are too many fans and too many financial interests in the NFL to let this go too far