Whitlock:Thursday Football bigger threat to player safety than bounties

[Deberg_1990]

Good Read


http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/R...ootball-091312





If and when Jonathan Vilma meets with Roger Goodell, the Saints linebacker should ask the commissioner a simple question:


What is more dangerous — a symbolic, thousand-dollar bounty system or the Baltimore Ravens opening the season playing four NFL games in 17 days?

The elimination of bounties will not stop one NFL defensive player from curb-stomping an opposing player if given the opportunity. Goodell’s New Orleans witch hunt won’t make the game safer. Would the elimination of Thursday night football enhance safety? I suspect one day a smart lawyer will argue that it would.

But that day isn’t here just yet, so Thursday night the Bears and the Packers kicked off the NFL’s season-long money grab. Year 7 of Thursday night football will stretch across the entire NFL season rather than just the second half.

The Ravens opened the 2012 season on “Monday Night Football” and will play their fourth game on Thursday, Sept. 27, completing as grueling a stretch of tackle football as we’ve ever seen.

“The four games in 17 days is strictly for the money,” Baltimore safety Bernard Pollard told me Thursday night. “We as players understand that so we do everything possible to take care of our bodies. It’s on the coaches to understand what we go through and to give us a break, because that’s a lot of pounding in a short amount of time.”

It’s difficult for the uninitiated to understand the physical toll a 60-minute football game takes on the body. I was a mediocre mid-major college football player. The physicality difference between high-school football and mid-major college football is enormous. After a college football game, you spent the next 24 to 36 hours feeling like you’d been in a bad car accident.

Inflammation overwhelms your body. I can only speculate about the gap between college football and the NFL, but I tend to believe the postgame pain and inflammation difference is just as pronounced as the leap from high school to college. I know that college and professional football players rely on anti-inflammatory drugs to get through the week. Four days is not enough recovery time.


“Your body is sleepwalking until the second and maybe the third quarter,” a recently retired NFL player told me Thursday. “Short week after a Monday night on the road is a nightmare. Watch Oakland this week. Travel to Miami after playing on ‘MNF,’ the Raiders gonna get killed.”

Some player is going to get severely hurt on a Thursday night.

Those of us in the media don’t like to talk about the stupidity and the exploitive nature of the NFL. The league butters all of our bread. We’re addicted to its popularity, relevancy and traction. Sports fans don’t care much either. We just want a good game to bet on.

There’s also a segment of the sports-fan population that doesn’t recognize the humanity of the combatants. Or we’re jealous. We think it’s fine for the oversized animals to brutalize each other for our entertainment. We think it’s a fair exchange for the money, fame and the adoration of young women.

And there’s another group of highly cynical fans who blame the players and their union for being dumb and cowardly enough to allow Goodell to pimp them out on Thursday nights. If the NFLPA isn’t wise enough and strong enough to object to Goodell making Ray Lewis and Ed Reed walk the track four nights in 17 days, why should Joe Sports Fan care?

It’s going to take death, a serious injury or a lawsuit to stop the NFL’s desire to televise live games seven days a week, six months a year. If a team can play four games in 17 days, why can’t teams play an 18-game regular season?

But Gregg Williams is evil because he instructed his defensive players to attack the head. Really? What’s more dangerous, deeds or tough talk, a brutal schedule or a bounty system that rewards you for what you were going to do anyway?

The vilification of the Saints and Goodell’s hypocrisy infuriate me. Thursday night football endangers the health of far more NFL players than some flimsy bounty system Vilma participated in.

Goodell earns more money than Vilma. Goodell could serve as commissioner for another 10 to 15 years. Vilma is staring at the end of his career. But Vilma is the guy who is fighting to avoid having a year’s salary stripped from him so Goodell can continue the charade that he cares about the health and safety of NFL players.

I wish Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, etc., had the guts to stand up for Vilma and demand that Goodell end his witch hunt. If the offensive stars supported Vilma, it would do more to create solidarity among all NFL players, end bounties and promote safety than all of Goodell’s helmet-to-helmet flags and whatnot.

The players need to protect themselves. Goodell and the owners aren’t going to do it.

[Tombstone RJ]

Originally Posted by Lou_Zare

okay. Let's suppose we start counting sunday. Monday is then day two.

As we work this equation to it's answer, we find saturday is the seventh day. Saturday. The following sunday could actually begin the new seven day equation which coincidentally counts as the first day of this new equation.

So, we now have sunday + 6 days = saturday = 7 ****ing days.

dude, you don't count Sunday twice. If you play on Sunday you start the count on Monday. Monday to the next Sunday is 7 days.

[Tombstone RJ]

Really, what the NFLPA should lobby for is another bi-week. Extend the season by one week but don't add another game. Just let each team have two bi-weeks to recover from all the Thursday and Monday Night games that jack with a regular week to recover.

[lcarus]

Originally Posted by Tombstone RJ

1 game a week for 4 weeks? 4x7=28 days as opposed to 17.

You play game 1 on the 1st, game 2 on the 8th, game 3 on the 15th, game 4 on the 22nd. How many days between game 1 and 4? Not 28.

[Tombstone RJ]

Originally Posted by lcarus

You play game 1 on the 1st, game 2 on the 8th, game 3 on the 15th, game 4 on the 22nd. How many days between game 1 and 4? Not 28.

Yah, I was talking about the difference between the Ravens brutal schedule and a somewhat regular schedule with a team hypothetically playing every Sunday. Which basically does not happen anymore with the Monday and Thursday games.

edit... I see what you are saying, yes, 21 days.

[lcarus]

Originally Posted by Tombstone RJ

Yah, I was talking about the difference between the Ravens brutal schedule and a somewhat regular schedule with a team hypothetically playing every Sunday. Which basically does not happen anymore with the Monday and Thursday games.

edit... I see what you are saying, yes, 21 days.

Yes they're playing 4 games in 17 days as opposed to 4 games in 21 days if they just played on sunday every game. It sucks to have a Sunday game and then a Thursday game, but the upside is, after the Thursday game they get 9 whole days before they play their next game.

[Marcellus]

The NFLPA exists for 1 reason and 1 reason only, to represent the players.

Don't blame the NFL or the owners etc...for this. The union the players pay to represent their $ and safety agreed to it. That is all the union has to look out for, health and $.

Why should Roger Goodell have to answer any questions about it? Demorris (sp?) Smith is much more responsible for this. The NFLPA shouldn't have allowed it.

[Hammock Parties]

Remember when the Chiefs had a short week and went to Miami and kicked ass?

Yeah, whatever.

[Hammock Parties]

The players are more than fairly compensated...get your ass out there, I don't care what day it is.

[Tombstone RJ]

Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning

The players are more than fairly compensated...get your ass out there, I don't care what day it is.

yes and no. Really the quality of the game goes way down if one team is worn out due to a crappy schedule. Also, yes, the chance of injury greatly increases. Again, if I was the NFLPA, I'd lobby for one more bi-week per team just to heal up. Really, the owners would have nothing to lose and much more to gain by doing this.

[lcarus]

Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning

Remember when the Chiefs had a short week and went to Miami and kicked ass?

Yeah, whatever.

Is that when they rescheduled the game on a whim to be played on a Friday because the hurricane was coming? Vermeil was the coach still I think?

[lcarus]

I like Thursday night games as a fan who likes to have a game between Monday and Sunday, but if they had these games on Friday or Saturday night that would be just fine too.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Micjones

I bet they don't mind 4 game checks in 17 days though.

Why?

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Tombstone RJ

Really, what the NFLPA should lobby for is another bi-week. Extend the season by one week but don't add another game. Just let each team have two bi-weeks to recover from all the Thursday and Monday Night games that jack with a regular week to recover.

I would be alright with this.

But Whitlock is being a drama queen...nobody is going to die from Thursday night football.

[lcarus]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Why?

Because 4 checks in 17 days is so much more awesome than 4 checks in 22 days. Those extra few days are BRUTAL.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by lcarus

Because 4 checks in 17 days is so much more awesome than 4 checks in 22 days. Those extra few days are BRUTAL.

I have no idea how they get by.