I’ve watched more football this past year than I have in many a moon, and the more I’ve watched, the more convinced I am that the game being played today is not the one I played in the 1960’s. Many of the maneuvers that we would have called “good hits” back then will now get you a 15 yard penalty. Targeting? We thought you were a wimp if you didn’t have skid marks all over your helmet from butting heads on the line and leading with your head making tackles. Back in the day, if you got knocked out, you could go right back into play when you woke up. We called getting knocked out "getting a phone call" or "getting your bell rung." We were smaller back then, which meant that head-on collisions at full speed were not quite as awful as getting run over by one of the 325-pound behemoths who stalk the modern football field.
All the changes I have discussed are designed to, and
do, reduce the probability and severity of injuries. Probably the best thing
that could be done would be to do away with the two-platoon system. If you’ve
got eleven guys who run onto the football field for the kickoff and stay there
until the final whistle, those guys aren’t going to be carrying a lot of extra
weight. Look at the men who play rugby and Australian rules football. There’s
not a 300 pounder in sight. Another way to reduce injuries is to restrict the weight
of football players. I’m not a mathematician, so these figures might be off,
but I’m going to take a shot at calculating the force of a 325-pound (147.7 kilogram)
tackle targeting a 220-pound (100 kilogram) quarterback who is in the pocket
looking for a receiver. Using the equation F=ma, and taking 8 miles per hour (12.8
kilometers per hour) as the speed of an average human being, we get an equation
of F=147.7*12.8. Force equals 527 Newtons. A Newton is the force necessary to accelerate
one kilogram a distance of 1 meter. The quarterback is hit in the head with a
force of 527 Newtons. That is sufficient to knock his head off if it isn’t
screwed down tight, and that is why targeting gets a 15 yard penalty.
Now let’s reduce the size of the defensive lineman to 250 pounds
(113.6 kilograms). Our equation becomes F=113.6*12.6. Force equals 404 Newtons.
The 250-pound tackle hits the quarterback with only 77% of the force of the 325-pound
tackle.
You can make all the rules you want against targeting, and
players are still going to do it. And quarterbacks are going to suffer massive
trauma to the head. Rules against targeting won’t eliminate head trauma, but a
weight restriction will reduce it significantly.
My modest suggestion for player safety in football is: (1) Eliminate
two platooning; and (2) put a weight limit of 250 pounds on linemen.
But what about all those 300-pound behemoths? What sport can
they play? To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, let them play Sumo. [That’s a joke].
I suspect most of them could eliminate body fat and excess muscle mass, and
they would be under 250. When I was in college we had a defensive tackle who stood
6’6” and weighed 245 pounds. He looked like a beanpole. A muscular beanpole. That same player today could pack on weight up to 300+ pounds and carry it easily. But he wouldn't be as healthy.
I've got some other ideas for rule changes to football, but I'll save them for another post.
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