Dolphins tailback Ricky Williams gives new rule a trial run.
Frustrated by the recent increase in violent helmet-to-helmet collisions, the NFL announced on Tuesday that beginning in 2012, helmets will be prohibited in professional football.
Flagrant fouls involving hits to the head have increased significantly this year, resulting in fines for Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison for $75,000 and $50,000 each for Atlanta Falcons cornerback Dunta Robinson and New England Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather.
NFL Vice President Ray Anderson has seen more and more players use their helmets as weapons and has had enough.
Initially Anderson thought that he would resolve the situation by having players apologize to those they’ve hit with their helmet to make them realize that what they’ve done is wrong and learn to better control themselves. But when Meriweather gave a half-hearted apology for two helmet-to-helmet hits on Baltimore Ravens’ Todd Heap, the NFL front office was incensed.
Anderson forcefully took Meriweather to the Raven’s practice facility and had him apologize to Heap again. But this time Meriweather had to say it like he really really meant it.
“Fines, suspensions, and forced mea culpas just aren’t sinking in with you guys,” Anderson said while addressing players at an after-dinner meeting last Sunday. “We warned all of you that if you didn’t stop hitting each other in the head with your helmets, Art [Shell, vice president of operations] and I would have no choice but to take them away from you altogether.”
“We issue you this nice piece of equipment with great paint and decal work and this is how you treat it?” Anderson asked. “This is why we can’t have nice things.”
Concussions due to helmet-to-helmet hits have been a problem ever since the hardened plastic headgear replaced the leather helmets over 60 years ago. The change was largely due to marketing so as to have a place to affix the fancy logos that have become such strong brand images for the league.
However, NFL officials are now convinced that the experiment to encase heads in protective plastic armor has been a failure and has actually increased incidences of career-ending head trauma. The NFL is looking to reverse the decades-long trend of unnecessary brain hemorrhages by allowing players to wear logo-adorned nylon/spandex skull caps instead.
“It’s an interesting idea,” said Fox analyst and Hall of Fame defensive end Howie Long. “If you don’t have anything shielding your noggin, you won’t have a false sense of security that you’ll be protected by a crushing blow to the temple. You might not throw yourself around at such high speeds without first thinking about the consequences.”
Long also noted that after the first bare head-to-head hit between players, “they won’t be doing that again, I can assure you.”
Ricky Williams, tailback for the Miami Dolphins, has been trialing the new rule this season and is taking a wait-and-see attitude.
Instead of helmet-to-helmet, most tackles were spleen-to-stomach in the '40s
“It’s tough to get a sense as to how this will all play out when I’m the only one doing this,” Williams said. “I will say, however, that I haven’t felt a need to lower my head into a pile of defenders this year, so maybe there’s something to all of this. All I know is that I can’t wait until a linebacker will think twice about running headlong into a ball carrier, such as myself.”
Players and fans alike are also concerned that removing this piece of protective equipment might slow the game down and lose its audience. Anderson countered that there will always be trade-offs.
“Look, no one ever thought of running full speed into another person back in the day of leather headgear. Have you seen the old black and white football films of the 1940’s? It’s like they are dancing out there. It was an elegant game.”
JB Goodbody frequently has thoughts in his head that makes him smile. Were they made public at the moment they poofed into existence, without some form of structured outlet such as satire, these thoughts would cause significant distress among his friends, family and coworkers. This is why he is here. 
That is messed up!