For Fans of Dennis Miller's MNF Tenure : CBSSports.com Blogs

"Protect the Players" at the Expense of the Game?

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 2:20:32 EDT

As the fledgling 2009 football seasons roll on, I continue to hear more and more the phrase, "Emphasis on protecting the players." I don't think anyone is against protecting these young men. It is a universally frightening thing to see a limp form on the field after 21 of the players have cleared out. This being said, I also think they are playing football. American football is a series of collisions. Twenty-two finely tuned athletes, ranging from the Chargers' Darren Sproles (5'6", 181) to Langston Walker (6'8", 366) of the Bills and beyond, throw themselves at one another with the greatest strength and speed they can muster. And I feel fairly certain that every last one of the hundreds of players that have reached the lofty heights of the NFL, and the millions who hope to, is aware of this inherent aspect of the game. Their job, their livelihood, their chosen career path requires them to get over the innate desire of everyday people to avoid running into other people. In fact, it demands that they get quite good at running into and over other people who have the same thing in mind for them. All of this is simply to say that when a human body collides with another human body at a velocity well over that of a man-on-the-street, there is a chance that someone is going to get hurt. In football, "protecting the players" should not mean "keep them from playing football." The emphasis should not be on big hits, but on dirty hits, cheap-shots, head-hunting, and the like. Crushing collisions are not only a big part of football, they are also an awesome part of football. I'm glad horse-collars, clothes-lines, and their ilk are not allowed. But wide receivers who go across the middle are going to meet safeties, who REALLY don't want them to catch that pass. Running backs who go out in the flats may find a linebacker they didn't know was there. And quarterbacks who don't feel pressure may wind up with a defensive end where their thorax used to be. There isn't a player in any tackle-football league who isn't aware of this, and of the potential consequences. I would daresay that most dirty hits look dirty from the outset. But it is possible for a clean, legal hit to look dirty, too (see also: Georgia vs. Oklahoma State last week). Players should not be penalized for doing their job. Sure, throw the flag if you think the hit was illegal. But take the time to be sure it was illegal. We have cameras that can help. These calls are too big, and this game is too great, to do anything less.

The 6th Annual Brett Favre Controversy

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:22:46 EST

I am so very sick of people talking about Brett Favre's season with the Jets as though it was an insult to professional football.

Actually, for the last 12 or so months, I have been increasingly sick of people talking about Brett Favre at all.

Make that 7 years.

If we're honest, we'll admit that this whole fiasco started on a nation-wide scale after what remains Brett's worst day as a professional football player--the 45-17 walloping (most of which he brought on himself via 6 picks)--7 years ago nearly to the day. The whispers started...Had his gritty, old-school gun-slinging style of play run out of gas? Was it time for the Packers to get the post-Favre era under way? The questions were generally one-sided at this point. They made the playoffs a few more times, and the questions held steady at a whisper.

Grassroots...It's not just for Politics anymore!

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:51:46 EST

I do love this fascinating modern age we live in. I, even I, can recall a time when I would have to satisfy myself with 6 or 7 available NCAA and NFL games a week--only 3 or 4 of which I would be able to watch. Now, I watch that many at once! It is a feeling of euphoria I never would have dreamed of experiencing. But it has come at a price. Nationwide availability comes with a nationwide mentality that is poisoning the game of NCAA Football. Whatever you may think of the BCS, the fact is that it is little better than rigged. What happens on the field is immediately made of secondary import to what has happened over the last 15 years, or what happened this past recruiting season thanks to that ridiculous subjective construct known as the Preseason Poll.

That buzzing sound you hear...

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:13:05 EDT

Has been getting louder and louder for three years now. The New Orleans Hornets (I have never, nor will I refer to the OKC portion--nothing against Oklahoma City; we appreciate them giving our team a place to play til we got things straightened out as much as they will be down here, but as for trying to take them entirely...buzz off) have gone from a team which I once wished would have the organizational ethos of the Memphis Grizzlies (seriously, I did....of course that's when the Icon was running them), to truly one of the top teams in the league. They didn't do this by buying stars. They did it by putting together a basketball team: getting hard-working team players to start (the oodles of talent therein didn't hurt), and equally hard-working role players to come off the bench.

This will be here if it's the last thing I do

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:01:04 EDT

OK, last try. The last two attempts have been eaten by the system. So, if they show up, I again apologize. Not trying to beat a horse I've already beaten.

Yes, it is only human for young players to want to capitalize on their value while they know they have it--especially when comparing checks to other players of their apparent caliber. But it is equally as human for the teams to pay these players as little as they possibly can get away with in order to keep them as long as they can. If I signed on with an employer who was paying plenty of people below my level of productivity many times more than I was getting paid, I'd probably be a bit perturbed. But if my co-workers had long been unionized, and had used this position to gain a compromise with the employer that dictated that the first few years of my time there would be compensated at a prescribed level regardless of my output, in return for the opportunity to gain exponential figures hiring myself out to the highest bidder based on perpetually overblown "market value"--where serviceable players wind up with what was formerly superstar money--I'd be a bit reticent about complaining.