Originally Posted by
steelreserve
I'm really not sure how much of that is Clark changing his ways, versus Clark simply having better luck lately. If I'm not mistaken, he's been called for at least a couple of personal fouls this year, besides the bullshit Giants one. Even if he's leading with his shoulder, or aiming lower, or both ... some receiver ducks his head or turns at the wrong moment, and all of a sudden he's a dirty player again, getting fined and suspended.
That's basically what happened to Reed. He was just making a tackle, and Sanders turned around right into him. I mean, when Reed began to go for the hit, Sanders' back was toward him. Which also makes the "defenseless receiver" part of it seem pretty fuzzy, since he had possession of the ball and managed to turn all the way around.
Sorry, but I don't buy it - if you're tackling another player, your head is going to be nearby no matter what, and sometimes there is going to be contact whether you "lead" with it or not. You're not going to get it out of the game ever, and if you do anything beyond penalizing the deliberate cheapshots like always, you're doing more harm than good.
Yes, I know what everyone will say about that - but blah blah blah the lawsuits, OMG everybody would sue. No. That's not what the lawsuits are about. It's about whether they knew of the medical danger of concussions and covered it up to past players. The risks are all out in the open now, and are pretty well acknowledged by both sides. Changing the rules now really has nothing to do with any of that. Especially since it doesn't prevent a damn thing. It's like what would happen if the federal government decided to pass a law banning heart disease. If anything, now that the players are aware this is a huge problem, they'll be the ones who do most of the work solving it - you see things like Harrison and Clark using the kevlar helmets, you see players being cautious with injuries instead of rushing back, in extreme cases you see guys deciding to quit the game when enough is enough. Also kind of along the lines of what would happen if people were suddenly aware of heart disease and how to cut down on the risk for it, rather than some ineffective rule being handed down about it.