Gronk goes down and Graham went down today too with almost an identical injury. Every star is headed for IR it seems.
This league cannot sustain itself at this rate. Everyone is getting injured while the league is trying to baby it's players.
It's time they open their eyes and realize coddling players through the season with no practice or hitting is not doing them any good. You must condition yourself to be beaten. I remember when I played the first week of practice sucked but your body got conditioned to be hit. I truly believe the new CBA is hurting the players while trying to help them.
Add to that piss poor quality on the field. Horrendous officiating literally ruining every game. And teams at 4-7 still believing and you have the golden goose sucking for air.
We root for laundry.
He was saying the exact same thing back then.
But it will condition the bodies and stop ruptured ligament and tendons. Players return from "hyperextended knees" The shit popping left and right is the problem.
Get off the couch and go run a 5k. Let me know how you feel. The only thing that will get these players more conditioned to play is practicing more and hitting.
The list of star players on IR is growing exponentially.
Quote:
and lack of hitting in practice is not going to stop hyper-extended knees...
But it will condition the bodies and stop ruptured ligament and tendons. Players return from "hyperextended knees" The shit popping left and right is the problem.
No it won't.
Yes, but the television ratings still increase and the money flows in.
Perhaps those that became addicted to football in the years when ESPN used to sell VHS tapes of the greatest hits of the year, most of which would draw a flag now, can't kick the habit but the next generation perhaps won't be interested enough to become addicted.
Luddite ? Seriously ? Typically that refers to tecnophobes not sure how that applies to football.
Nfl ratings may be great today but the injuries to star players is going to eat away at viewership and fandom. Is already happening. I live in Texas do you think the viewership for the Cowboys has gone down since romo went down ? A shit ton it has.
The nfl was and has been very successful because it was managed very well, salary cap etc. but this concussion stuff and the injury issues could do quite a bit of damage.
Personally my whole outlook and interest level drops when I don't know the players on the team. And with the injury issues to stars you are getting much less for tour dollar or time.
If Eli went down I don't think I would watch another giant game all year .
One possible solution is an NFL farm system. It's crazy to me to see when you need players to fill in due to injury you are getting guys off the street at times who have been not playing any football a all... like in other leagues where they pull from minor league affiliates.
I wonder if the quality of play would go up overall and more players would "tough it out" through injuries if they would be replaced easily .. They can't now and I think it's affecting the quality of the game.
That can solve a depth of talent issue that the NFL certainly seems to have.
A change not for the better either. So the OP is not the only one who feels this way.
Many new fans don't even know the old product.
All that said, it's my most favorite sport by far. I love the NBA, but it's not even close to football. There's nothing I love to do more than sit around on a Saturday & Sunday & watch college & pro football.
The game has great athletes too.
But the violence, the arbitrary rules and ADD programming style is awful.
It reminds me of the tobacco industry 40 years ago....
The executives figured out that they were making billions with a toxic product. They faced a big decision: own up to it, try to find a cure that keeps smokers smoking or just deny it and make as much money as you can while you can. Big tobacco chose the latter.
The NFL owners are doing the same. The are paying lip service to "player safety" while buying out old players and injecting lawsuit-proof contract language into all new player contracts.
Point is they are milking the Golden Goose for all they can. Which means they will not increase rosters that cut into their profits.
But it sure does seem like more star players are getting hurt every year and it's absolutely affecting my enjoyment of watching the game.
That and the refs are definitely making the game shittier. And I'm not just a crotchety old fuck, I'm in my early 30s.
I believe there is going to come a time where the concept of traditional football may not die but come to an end where people are more interested in fantasy stats and less interested in teams because if say Eli goes down, the Giants are done but if he goes down in fantasy, make a trade or hit the waiver wire and you are still playing.
With each season I find myself gravitating more towards the NHL and MLB because injuries don't pull teams down at the level the NFL has. Yes you can lose a starting pitcher but he only pitches once every 5 days. You can lose your HR hitter. Play small ball. You lose your #1 center in hockey. It will hurt but have 11 other forwards to help pick up the slack. You lose a few DB's or OL or QB over a 16 game season. You can be done really quick.
Could the NFL place a weight ceiling on players by position. No human should be 300 lbs.
I'm old? LMAO. In in my 30's. If you can't see the downward trend this league is on you are nuts. The poster who compared it to big tobacco is spot on. It's not too big to fail. It just seems that way.
Take a look around elementary, middle and high schools. Football is not nearly as popular with the next generation of fans as it was with mine and the one before mine
As far as the concussion issue and hitting in practice. Practice hitting and game hitting is not the same thing and what I am talking about is practice volume. These guys are never on the field. The repetition is not there. They are not conditioned to play the game. They are conditioned to be big strong human beings with the off the field conditioning and drugs but they are not conditioned to be football players.
It is HGH related, but the NFL would rather not open that can of worms. If they truly did strict PED testing, you'd have 85-90% of the lines suspended.
Yup. That's old.
have to think there is something to this .
Several times, DB's dived for his legs and just missed.....this is a big guy....and when he was hit, you could see the knee turn a funny way...something is stretched bad in there.....if he returns, it will be like when he played in the SB against us....he will be a shell....he won't be "Gronk".....
Well, it took, the loss of Lewis, Edelman, Amendola, Collins, Hightower, Gronk and most of the OL, for the Pats to finally lose a game.....but it did take an overtime to do it....with their team decimated, think they show up for the Eagles game? Will the Giants show up for the Jets?
Alan Faneca
Jordan Gross
Jeff Saturday:
Football helmets haven't fundamentally changed in a long time. You would think that they could come up with better head protection where the helmet or other head protection device could absorb most of a blow before it reached the head.