New Rule Against Helmet-to-Helmet Contact and Big Hits: Is This the End to Exciting Football as We Know It?

On Sunday October 17, over ten professional football players were helped off the field because they had all received concussions or other head related injuries (Canfora). An injury can occur at any time of day, walking across the street, going up stairs, or in a contact sport like football.   Many people receive injuries when they participate in football. An assortment of injuries can occur: such as, strained muscles, torn ligaments, broken bones, or at the worst, spinal and cranial injuries.
Lately, the biggest worry has been concussions.   Concussions can be caused by the jarring of the brain which doesn’t have to come from big hits, it can come from repetitive little hits and can lead to unconsciousness, dementia, or at worst, death. This injury is predominately occurring in football. People are now trying their best to prevent these potentially deadly injuries from occurring.
Recently the NFL has made the decision to punish players who commit helmet-to-helmet hits or big hits, in an attempt to prevent injuries such as neck injuries or concussions. After that injury ridden Sunday, the NFL acted immediately. The Vice President of Operations for the NFL, Ray Anderson, stated that they were concerned and the old fundamental way of wrapping up has faded away and the new thing is just blowing people up (Twentyman). Translated as, the old way of wrapping your arms around somebody and running through has faded away and the new thing is just to hit them as hard as humanly possible with as little form as possible. They feel as if the hitting nowadays has gotten out of hand. The NFL has now made all helmet-to-helmet contact illegal along with “malicious” hits. The players who commit these hits will now be fined heavily or even suspended for their actions.
An assortment of players have already been punished for their once “legal” hits.   The Pittsburgh Steelers’ James Harrison was fined $75,000 that weekend for a hit on the Browns’ Mohamed Massaquoi, a play that...