Posts Tagged ‘Tony Romo’

NFL pounds New Orleans Saints for paying bounties for maiming opponents. Will the NBA, NHL, NCAA, FIFA be inspired?

March 21, 2012

 

I used to be a boxing fan. Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Jake LaMotta were boyhood heroes, and the highlight of my week was the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, telecasting fights every Friday night. The program was top-rated until more and more fans—eventually including me—gradually came to understand that the object of the game was to cause brain damage, hopefully temporary but occasionally permanent and cumulative, as happened to thousands, most famously Muhammad Ali.

I became an even bigger pro football fan, until being turned off by the violence—not the inherent violence of the game, but the intentional maiming of marquee players like Brett Favre, DeSean Jackson, and Tony Romo.

It was no surprise when earlier this month the NFL disclosed that the New Orleans Saints had paid bounties for injuring opposing players, with extra money for “cart-offs” –when the injured player had to be carried off the field in a motorized gurney.

But today there was a surprise—a welcome one: the league came down with crushing punishments for the practice: Saints head coach Sean Payton was suspended without pay for the entire 2012 season, former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams (who apparently initiated the practice) was banned indefinitely (more…)

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The NFL’s anti-head-smashing policy is a sham: Packers’ Nick Collins fined 2 minutes pay for savage hit on Cowboy Roy Williams

November 10, 2010

 

The NFL has learned that blows to the head of football players causes dementia in not-so-much-later years, and announced earlier this year a serious policy of punishing players who go after the heads of opponents, especially those in a helpless position (like falling after reaching for a pass).


A recent column warned that head hunting is destroying the NFL stars that people pay to see, like DeSean Jackson and Tony Romo, who were put out of action—Romo for the season—two weeks ago. Sunday saw a brutal blow by Nick Collins of the Green Bay Packers to the head of Roy Williams of the Dallas Cowboys, late in a 45-7 blowout win by the Packers. You can watch the blow here if you have a strong stomach. Williams lay still for minutes, then was helped off, but returned to the game later—apparently to prove he could “take it,” in spite of the risk of permanent brain damage.


Game announcer Cris Collingsworth, a knowledgeable former player was outraged by the hit, calling it “totally unnecessary,” and assuring viewers, (more…)

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The NFL is destroying its stars: last week DeSean Jackson, this week Tony Romo—and lots of others

October 27, 2010

It’s getting sickening to watch NFL games, and the league needs to do something about it. Last week there was a blizzard of concussions due to unpenalized and unpunished helmet-to helmet blows to the heads of helpless victims, most notably the young Eagles star receiver and kick returner DeSean Jackson.


Monday night it was the vicious hit by New York Giants linebacker Michael Boley that crushed Dallas quarterback Tony Romo’s shoulder, sidelining Romo indefinitely, and putting an end to Dallas playoff hopes.

Everybody agrees that Boley made a ”legal” hit, which is what makes it so awful. Boley hit Romo just after he released a pass, then continued to drive Romo shoulder first into the artificial turf. The injury appeared to be the intent of the hit; if not the intent, then a welcome bonus.


There’s no reason for the league to permit such mayhem, practiced against the games glamour players: the star quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers. For egregious roughness of quarterbacks, or helmet-to helmet hits, which are life-threatening, the perpetrators should be suspended for as long as the victim is unable to play—plus one game. That penalty would cut the frequency drastically.


If the NFL doesn’t take strong action it will turn off its fans while it destroys its marquee players.

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