Is The NFL Becoming Too Soft?

The NFL's competition committee adopted a new "pansy" rule as I call it.  Because of Tom Brady's season ending knee injury last season, the league has now decided to pass a rule that prevents defenders from hitting a quarterback below the waist if they are on the ground.  What that means is, if I am Jason Taylor, and while rushing the passer I get pushed to the ground by a lineman.  Instead of the defender being able to crawl on all fours or lunge to make the tackle, he has to stand up then proceed towards the quarterback.  This will buy at least 1 to 2 seconds extra for the Q.B. to scramble, and/or get the pass off which almost defeats the entire purpose of a pass rush.  Of course I understand why the NFL is attempting to protect Q.B.'s they are the biggest stars in the league, and highest paid.  But at the end of the day they are still football players, I do not see the same rules being passed when defensive lineman get injured from chop blocks.  Several players have received broken legs, torn ligaments, and various other leg injuries via the chop block, defensive lineman are stars in this league as well.

This rule has an underlying theme outside of protecting it’s stars the real motivation behind this is the belief that touchdowns sell tickets.  The owners have believed for a long time that the more scoring that occurs in the games, the more fans will come out.  I appreciate a good low scoring defensive game, but most casual fans want to see the ball in the end zone as early and often as possible.  This rule is going to give yet another advantage to the offense, and having a game like the Eagles vs. Giants last week aren’t what I would call an exciting NFL game.  The Eagles prevailed 45 – 38, but there was virtually no defense in the game, missed tackles, guys running wide open, no pass rush it looked all the bit like a game out of a bad college football conference.  This “pro” offense approach has been used by the NBA for years and it hasn’t really served them well either, so why would the NFL continue to advocate this method?  Well it’s clear they think the fans won’t watch football if Tom Brady or Peyton Manning are out for the season with an injury, injuries are part of the game just as much as anything else and they are unavoidable.  I hate blowouts and I hate games where there is no defense, and you should to as a matter of fact seeing a guy get lit up running across the middle to catch a pass is more exciting to me than some guy running wide open and catching a touchdown.

At the end of the day I think the NFL is becoming to soft, of course money is driving all their decisions these days.  The NFL is a business, but I fear the quality of play is slowly suffering just so they can sell more tickets.  They need to find a balance between protecting the Quarterbacks, and still giving the defense a chance to make plays.  This can be seen by the simple fact that there are  only a few “lock down” corner backs in the league, pass interference is called so often and is so heavily penalized the old tricks of the trade are not worth the risk anymore.  Thirteen weeks into the season we have seen our share of bad calls in this league, and even Tom Brady lobby for a flag against the Ravens and actually get the call.  I believe one game this season there were  seven pass interference penalties called, that is just horrendous at some point you have to let the players play.

All we can do is wait and see if this trend continues, defenses in the NFL have shown an amazing ability to adjust to new rule changes against them.  I am sure new tactics for offensive linemen will be coached, as all they need to do now is get the defender on the ground somehow and that’s an extra 2 – 3 seconds for their quarterback to throw the football.  We will see how the league continues to adapt, I am sure veteran defensive coordinators will find a way to keep this rule from slowing them down, but only time will tell.  Ultimately this isn’t the same NFL I grew up watching, and I don’t think we will ever see that brand of football again the parity this year is no where near what it has been for the past few seasons and I suspect this rule has a lot to do with it.

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