OT: James Harrison threatens to quit over fine

[eagle eye]

Probably a spur of the moment reaction but I think its good to see a top player making waves and not just accepting the fine. Something has to be done about the rules right now, its becoming impossible for defenders to do their job.

"I'm going to sit down and have a serious conversation with my coach tomorrow and see if I can actually play by NFL rules and still be effective," Harrison said. "If not, I may have to give up playing football."

NFL.com news: Steelers LB Harrison mulling retirement after $75K fine for hit

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

Good for him. Not all NFL players like playing flag football. Godell is turning the league into a joke with all his rules and regulations.

 

[bakes781]

Well I'm in the exception on this but I felt his hit on Cribbs was definitely illegal. He clearly lowered his helmet into Cribbs's helmet. The Massaquoi one was similar to the Dunta play, but he could've still avoided the head area.

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

Good for him. He should quit. But he should wait until after the Dolphin's game. Then retire before we play the Steelers.

 

[Disco Volante]

Harrison is a woman beating, cheap hitting piece of ****. Hopefully he does quit.

 

[Armen Da Pats Fan]

Harrison is a woman beating, cheap hitting piece of ****. Hopefully he does quit.

The question, though, is:

When beating his women, could he have avoided helmet-to-helmet contact and did he keep his head up.

Also, Harrison does not want to injure the women he beats, he just wants to hurt them.

 

[BradyManny]

Good for him. Not all NFL players like playing flag football. Godell is turning the league into a joke with all his rules and regulations.

Are you serious? I take it then you have no problem with all the issues these players have been facing after retiring from the game? Once they are done entertaining you, you couldn't give a **** what the rest of their lives are like?

There's a way to play the game hard without inducing potentially life-altering hits. Again, as I said in another thread, it comes back to the fact that they are armed with helmets - the false feeling of safety it provides, and the violent hits it produces. No way do Meriweather or Harrison lay themselves out like that if they don't have helmets on.

Again - we are talking about hits that include the use of a weapon - a helmet, not hits that a human could provide on his own doing.

These guys act tough, but James Harrison isn't throwing his head into Cribb's head without helmets on either of themselves. I'm not advocating removing helmets from the game (as Aikman did, see Meriweather thread), but its time the players started to play as if they weren't wearing them - the game would be safer and it would not suffer at all. In fact, you could argue that tackling around the league would dramatically improve as it would be done more fundamentally right.

 

[borg]

My problem with this plan of justice is that play will be altered depending on your salary. If a minimum wage player gets docked $50K, it hurts and he will think twice. The multimillion dollar player may see this fine as a cost of doing business, like Rodney Harrison did. Their game is less likely to change. Either fines should be proportional to income.... or suspensions without pay.

 

[lostjumper]

The question, though, is:

When beating his women, could he have avoided helmet-to-helmet contact and did he keep his head up.

Also, Harrison does not want to injure the women he beats, he just wants to hurt them.

/golf clap

 

[Sicilian]

Good for him. Not all NFL players like playing flag football. Godell is turning the league into a joke with all his rules and regulations.

Before last weeks slate of games, how many of these fines were levied? MAYBE 1 per week if that? Now compare that to how many hits are layed in an a typical NFL game/week/season.

99.999999% of NFL plays are NOT going to be affected by cracking down on these types of hits. Clearly it is possible to lay some lumber without slamming your helmet into someone elses everytime.

The game will most likely seem no different going forward, so take heart if that's all you're worried about.

 

[bucky]

He sounds like my immature 8 year old.

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

Are you serious? I take it then you have no problem with all the issues these players have been facing after retiring from the game? Once they are done entertaining you, you couldn't give a **** what the rest of their lives are like?

There's a way to play the game hard without inducing potentially life-altering hits. Again, as I said in another thread, it comes back to the fact that they are armed with helmets - the false feeling of safety it provides, and the violent hits it produces. No way do Meriweather or Harrison lay themselves out like that if they don't have helmets on.

Again - we are talking about hits that include the use of a weapon - a helmet, not hits that a human could provide on his own doing.

These guys act tough, but James Harrison isn't throwing his head into Cribb's head without helmets on either of themselves. I'm not advocating removing helmets from the game (as Aikman did, see Meriweather thread), but its time the players started to play as if they weren't wearing them - the game would be safer and it would not suffer at all. In fact, you could argue that tackling around the league would dramatically improve as it would be done more fundamentally right.

Sure, remove the helmets. It s heading that way anyhow with all the controls being enforced on the players. In due time, they'll all be wearing flags on their hips in which case helmets won't be needed.

As for my take on the injury aspect ...... the game is violent and injuries happen. If a player doesn't want to subject himself to possible injury then he should go play golf instead.

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

99.999999% of NFL plays are NOT going to be affected by cracking down on these types of hits. Clearly it is possible to lay some lumber without slamming your helmet into someone elses everytime.

Everytime?

 

[MoLewisrocks]

My problem with this plan of justice is that play will be altered depending on your salary. If a minimum wage player gets docked $50K, it hurts and he will think twice. The multimillion dollar player may see this fine as a cost of doing business, like Rodney Harrison did. Their game is less likely to change. Either fines should be proportional to income.... or suspensions without pay.

That's exactly why you should like this plan. Going forward there will be suspensions without pay including for first offenders who commit egregious offenses like Meriweather did, and there can be multi-game suspensions for repeat offenders like Harrison is. If Harrison believes he can't play the game within the rules and still be effective, he should go home. The game isn't about him and it will go on just fine without him. Headhunting isn't a skillset, it's a mindset. You can intimidate an opponent within the rules if your actually talented as opposed to merely vicious.

 

[PittPatriot]

Harrison is a woman beating, cheap hitting piece of ****. Hopefully he does quit.

Yes, but he'd look great in red, white, and blue...with a touch of silver.

He is a heck of a player but speaks without thinking. He is the same guy who did not want to visit the White House after the SB victory because "The President wouldn't have invited us had we lost the game."

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

Sure, remove the helmets. It s heading that way anyhow with all the controls being enforced on the players. In due time, they'll all be wearing flags on their hips in which case helmets won't be needed.

As for my take on the injury aspect ...... the game is violent and injuries happen. If a player doesn't want to subject himself to possible injury then he should go play golf instead.

Actually removing the helmets and other equipment would not be a bad idea. Rugby is just as violent of sport but with less serious injuries because the players are not armed with weapons.

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

That's exactly why you should like this plan. Going forward there will be suspensions without pay including for first offenders who commit egregious offenses like Meriweather did, and there can be multi-game suspensions for repeat offenders like Harrison is. If Harrison believes he can't play the game within the rules and still be effective, he should go home. The game isn't about him and it will go on just fine without him. Headhunting isn't a skillset, it's a mindset. You can intimidate an opponent within the rules if your actually talented as opposed to merely vicious.

But you are presuming malicious intent. How do you, or Godell, know what Meriweather's intent was on that Heap play?

Sure, the hit ended up being head to head but there might not have been any semblance of malicious intent to do so on the part of Merwieather on that play. Meriwether may well have intended to hit Heap with his shoulder but, the nature of the speed and dynamics of the event didn't allow for it to happen that way and he ended up hitting him in the helmet with his own helmet. Do you actually Meriweather thought to himself that he wants to risk serious head injury to himself by hitting his friend in the head with his helmet? Maybe Meriwether's aim was wrong? Maybe Heap moved at the last minute after Merwieather already committed himself? The problem is you've got the league now involved in determining player intent in the matter. That's never a good thing.

Just wait until the league starts suspending players whose aim was as bad as Merwieathers ....... Harrison's recent actions will be tame.

 

[JackBauer]

Imagine if Meriweather made these comments. Heh.

 

[Sicilian]

Everytime?

Are you making a knock on my grammar or my contention that most of the time you can hit someone without making it illegal?

 

[eagle eye]

If Harrison believes he can't play the game within the rules and still be effective, he should go home. The game isn't about him and it will go on just fine without him.

This is all wrong. Not about Harrison being hugely important or anything like that but its getting to the stage where receivers are now starting to think about diving to get a flag. There have been a few instances of that already. The rules have to change regarding pass interference. I think thats part of what Harrison was alluding to when he said he has to decide if the can play within the rules now.

If you want to cut out the headshots you have to relax the rules on PI. Its that simple. If you are intent on fining players for hard hits then they can't do that and if they put their hands in its gonna be a PI call so tell me exactly what can a defender do?

The head shots are going to happen because of the speed of the game and the defender trying to time his hit for when the receiver has got his chance to catch the ball.