Is NFL too lenient towards offenders? – NFL Feature-Part One
Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison was the first professional league player to have been suspended by the National Football League (NFL) for a game over his brutal hit on Cleveland Browns quarterback Colt McCoy in the 2011 season.
The punishment drew contradictory reactions from within the league. This includes officials, franchises bosses, former NFL Players and current players.
The ones who can be classified as optimists for the sake of an argument here welcomed the penalty to be a positive development. They said the league had at least taken first step towards a right direction.
The ones who can be labelled as pessimists lashed out at the league office for going too lenient against the player given the subject of the hit had suffered concussion.
Both groups were right in their views. First, at least the league had taken first step to punish a player through suspension over the head injury. It had never happened before, as optimists would say.
This indicated that the office was determined to move beyond the lip-service era to do something to control head injuries given they have multiple repercussions for players during and after their professional careers. So, even one-game ban was not a wasted
effort after all.
Second, the pessimists also had a valid point because the suspension was handed to a player who had been a regular offender. It was and is on the record that he has knocked down about half a dozen players with head injuries.
Harrison has already been made to pay hefty amount in fines over the course of past couple of years. So, one-ban game was not seen enough to discipline him as the group had claimed.
The argument went on, and still persists in some quarters. A positive outcome of this reasoning between the opposing groups is that it has provided the league office a sense of direction: that a majority of the football community is serious about handling
concussions, and they want the league do something about it.
It leaves out some exceptional cases of people holding extreme views thinking that hitting opponents is a part and parcel of the professional football game.
The argument has also in a way supported the league's cause of improving players’ safety and security on the field.
Although the league in response to a large number of lawsuits pending hearing before many courts had claim that players’ safety had always been a priority for the office, it has taken a few practical steps since the incident of Colt McCoy to improve on-ground
situation.
Firstly, it has seriously debated the issue and shown clear intentions of making the game as safer as possible.
Secondly, there are hints the office wants to settle concussion cases with its former players, although it insists that the compensation they have been demanding had been a part of the collective bargaining agreements of their times.
Thirdly, it also reflects that the league commissioner Roger Goodell has taken the matter on a war-footing basis. It was further helped by the handling of Colt McCoy's concussion by the Browns.
Despite suffering an head injury, the Browns QB suffered was let resume his game without an inspection by the team’s medical staff for concussion on the sidelines. The league office after an investigation found Browns’ system failing but let them go unpunished
because the team claimed the medical staff could not assess the impact.
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