Ponymon wrote:I guess the NFL will have to become a "flag" football league to stay in business in the future. Can't afford to have anybody hit too hard! Too many kids growing up given "participation" trophies leading to a complete change in the attitude towards the game. The "pussifying" of America? Football would never have gotten a start if the same attitude existed back at the turn of the nineteenth century. Can you imagine, they used to play without facemasks and the pads were a fraction of what they are today?
I am normally all over the pussification argument but not in this case.
Football began with 11 guys of similar average size and no pads. There is a limit on hits in that environment. Go watch a rugby game. Now with specialization of players (huge difference in size between largest and smallest on the field) and helmets and padding, hits have exceed human ability to absorb it in the brain.
It is like boxing. Gloves make it way less bloody but ultimately harder on the brain because you can punch much harder than bare knuckle.
Football will either become a 7 on 7 passing sport with little contact or it must go back and eliminate helmets and facemasks.