You CANNOT regulate violence in the NFL

Somewhere Ray Nitschke is rolling over in his grave.

Did I miss the memo from Roger Goodell and the rest of the NFL that football is no longer a violent sport? This is a league that has produced such names as "Bronco" Nagurski, Jack "The Assassin" Tatum, "Mean" Joe Greene, and Ed "Too Tall" Jones. It's a league dominated by men of great girth, speed, and power, where testosterone is king.

Football by nature is a sport of violence. It is a game where mammoth sized men hit other men at incredibly high speeds. It's part of the fun of the game. Big hits make the crowd go "oooooo." Personally I love a good clean hit. It's exciting.

Now I understand that certain kinds of hits need to be deterred. People who intentionally and consistently cause helmet to helmet hits need to be fined and ejected. In light of recent discoveries about the long term effects of concussions I'm glad that the NFL has taken appropriate steps in the last several years. (No one wants their favorite player to end up like Al Toon.)

However, I am at a loss as to what to make of the NFL's edict this past week saying that "violent conduct will be cause for suspension." Umm...huh? This is a violent sport! You play with a lot of pads. People can get hurt but that's why they call it football and not soccer. Vicious hits are going to happen! You can't go out and tell Ray Lewis not to be Ray Lewis. It's just not good for the league and it sends mixed messages. In fact the announcement is so baffling that star Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end Jerome Harrison is seriously considering retirement.

The NFL on the other hand needs to retire this attitude about violent hits. "Violent" when it comes to football is relative. Every play is violent. We all know there should be reprecussions when a person is horse collared or where there is an intentional helmet to helmet shot, but what about other situations? What about unintentional helmet to helmet hits like the one that the one linebacker London Fletcher distributed last week? Do those warrant fines and suspensions? "Violent" in these cases becomes so subjective it's ridiculous.

Furthermore what about offensive linemen? My good friend John who is a former high school and college offensive lineman consistently tells me that linemen have it the worst. Every play someone is diving at your knees, spitting on you, twisting various parts of your anatomy, and in many ways just making your life miserable. Isn't this vicious and violent as well? How do we regulate it? Can we?

There is already way too much protection for quarterbacks, and if defensive backs breathe on wide receivers it's pass interference. Going down this path would be a travesty and a mistake. I don't want to watch Troy Polamalu make "polite tackles" and neither do the fans. You remember fans don't you NFL? The ones who buy the tickets, the giant foam cheeseheads, and every other piece of memorabilia. Do you really want to alienate these people?

In some ways you can compare this situation to Ben Roethlisberger's recent problems. I applaud Roger Goodell for his actions in suspending the Pittsburgh quarterback but it is not his job to regulate morality. What happens if an NFL player goes to a bar, takes a lady home, has sex, and finds out later that the woman videotaped it and uploaded the whole thing on youtube? Should he be punished for doing something that many red blooded 20 year American males do every Friday night---who aren't pro athletes? I don't think so.

Both of these situations are slippery slopes to tread on. The violence aspect really aggravates me though. I'm begging the NFL: please do not let the NFL degenerate into a highly paid version of flag football. Not only would it be tragic but I don't want to have to listen to Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth comment on color schemes. Their horrendous by-play is bad enough. Plus there is a greater likelihood that Brett Favre will sext more pictures of his junk to various women, based on the simple fact that he has less padding to remove. No...thank...you.

Regulating violence in the NFL is just like the Vietnam War. Victory is unattainable. So instead of overreacting NFL, continue fining and suspending players who headhunt and intentionally cheap shot others. Doing so is protecting the players. Trying to curtail all violence only hinders and hurts your sport. That's why it's played on the grid iron and not the ball pit at Chuck E Cheese.