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Helmet hits are part of the game Posted: Friday November 01, 2002 3:30 PM
Have you even seen a football helmet? Held one in your hands to gauge its heft and size? If you're a football fan and your answer is no, then I urge you to find a nearby sporting-goods store, run straight to the football aisle and find the nearest helmet. Pick it up, toss it in the air and then catch it. Here is what you will notice: It's heavy, like a partly (but not entirely) hollowed-out bowling ball. Rap the exterior surface with your knuckles. Isn't it harder than the countertop in your kitchen? Now go ahead, put it on your head. Sweet, huh? Pump a little air into the lining and you could run headlong into a the side of an armored car and not feel a thing. Of course, the truck might get hurt. Here, of course, is the soul of the debate currently raging in the NFL on the issue of helmet-to-helmet hits, and helmet hits in general. On Thursday, the NFL fined Eagles safety Brian Dawkins $50,000 for a helmet-leading tackle on Giants receiver Ike Hilliard Monday night that separated Hilliard's shoulder and might have knocked him out for the season. This came one day after the Cowboys' Darren Woodson was docked $75,000 for a head-to-head that caused Seattle's Darrell Jackson to have seizures on the locker-room floor after the game. The spate of heavy fines and suspensions (Denver's Kenoy Kennedy also was fined earlier in the season) is the result of the NFL's increased emphasis on the helmet hit. At first glance, this seems fair enough. A football helmet is an effective safety device that can also be used as a weapon in a violent game where collisions -- and intimidation -- are part of the action on every play. But it's not that simple. Consider: This wasn't an issue when players wore leather or plastic helmets. Nobody wearing one of those things would lead into a pile with his brain, not even Chuck Bednarik. This is a genie that won't go back into its bottle. The game can't return to leather helmets (or no helmets, like rugby), just like it can't make athletes smaller and less explosive. Of course, the NFL is trying to live by a double standard. Violence sells big-time. Yet now the league is fining people for getting too violent. What's the alternative? Go low and blow out knees? Resurrect the clothesline? I'm guessing nobody in the league offices expects to eradicate the helmet hit, but by parceling out a few noisy public fines, executives will make themselves appear vigilant. Defensive backs will keep hitting with the helmet, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident. Some of them will lose a little money. The sport won't change. It's a rough game. People get hurt. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.
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