Wednesday Morning QB (Week 14)
Just after Week 13 one NFL player made a few headlines when he went on a post-game rant after the Steelers win against the Bengals.
The rant by Mike Mitchell was largely in response to the suspensions that the league has handed out in the past few weeks.
JuJu Smith-Schuster was suspended for a game after a dirty hit during the process of a play while Rob Gronkowski was suspended the same amount for a dirty hit after the play.
It is far from an uncommon complaint amongst players but these comments took a bit of a different turn.
In the rant, he began to complain about the state of the league in that the rules regarding player safety are ruining the game.
He stated that he signed up to play tough football with big crunching hits and that the rules passed were taking that away.
He was applauded for his outburst as many had been thinking the same thing and were disappointed by the way the game is going.
There is a call out for the league to stop trying to change the game and leave it as it has been where players aren’t limited.
Week 14 should be a wake-up call to all those that believe that nothing needs to be done about the game.
This past week in the NFL was rocked with injuries continuing a trend throughout the season where big-name players have been going down.
Things got really scary when Tom Savage went down after a hit in the end zone that drove his head into the ground.
When the play was over it was clear that something was seriously wrong with Savage as he began to roll over shaking uncontrollably.
Something had happened on the hit and Savage clearly hurt his head in a major way.
After a few plays off, Savage came back into the game only to have the NFL remove him using their injury spotters.
Of course, this hit was not illegal and was a freak injury that could have happened any time in any game.
Nobody needs to be punished for the hit but the fact is that this hit shows more than any other why things needed to be changed.
The game has been getting faster and the players have been getting bigger every year and that combination does not make for a safer game.
Yes, the game has essentially not changed since that time but when players are bigger and moving faster collisions are worse.
Injuries are a part of the game and there will never be a way to take them entirely out of the game.
That’s unfortunate when it seems like more big players are going down ruining the product on the field.
Although many do want to see the NFL go back to the old way of doing things the more that big stars like Aaron Rodgers and Carson Wentz aren’t on the field.
When they aren’t on the field the product is not as good and the NFL realizes this trying to make sure that these players don’t miss that time.
They are putting in rules to help prevent the serious injuries that could take a player out for far longer than a few games.
As much as the league will build it as a way to protect their players and help them in their future.
The reality is that they don’t want to see their biggest stars, and yes most of them are offensive players, sidelined.
The talent in the league is massive right now but that doesn’t help the league when someone gets hit in the head and goes down for the rest of the season and possibly into multiple seasons.
That doesn’t help anyone as the game suffers when the best players are not playing and when fans see that type of violence and injuries.
Although there are still a lot of people who wish the NFL would stop putting in rules that reduce the violence the fact is this is a different game.
Yes, injuries cannot be stopped and the best players won’t always stay healthy the entire time in any season.
The rules put in place to protect against head injuries or other serious season-ending injuries.
It is all a response to the game evolving into a game where bigger players are playing faster and hitting harder.
It won’t take hitting out of the game as there are plenty of legal hits that can get people excited but hits to the head, like the one that Mitchell complained about from two years ago, have no place in the game and never did.
Fifth Quarter
Digital Bombshell
The NFL is the leader in North American sports and what they do is what most other leagues will eventually do. That is how the North American sports environment became dependant on TV to make their money. Things have shifted though as people are cutting the chord and the sports world is falling behind. The NFL is taking a big step though signing a $2.25 billion deal with Verizon for streaming rights providing streaming to football fans likely putting NFL games on Yahoo Sports, a platform controlled by Verizon, and becoming one of the first leagues with a legitimate free streaming service.
NFL Network Suspensions
The entertainment world has been rocked over the last few months with sexual misconduct accusations against some of the biggest stars in the world. The sports world was not immune from the controversy though as this week saw accusations come against analysts on the NFL Network. Former players turned analysts, Marshall Faulk, Ike Taylor and Heath Evans were all accused of sexual harassment this week. The NFL Network suspended all three pending an investigation into the accusations.
Browns Get their Man
The Cleveland Browns continue to find ways to lose and things have sunk to an all-time low with their season looking like it could go down as one of the worst ever. An 0-13 season has only ever been done once before and the Browns are looking like they are headed right there. The bad season was always going to lead to change but this week they pulled the trigger on the first change firing their GM and hiring John Dorsey. The move came likely after the Giants fired their GM and with the former Kansas City GM in high demand, the Browns went after him, just before he met with the Giants for their vacant spot.
The Sport Addiction 