NFL: Hardest Hits

6 thoughts on “NFL: Hardest Hits”

1. Dear Mr. Litton,

   A great retro cartoon though as I mentioned yesterday your best work on the subjected featured the Oakland Raider player and Daryl Stingley.

   All the best

   Louis

2. NFL is nothing more than human cockfighting now. Players hit hard because we loved to see all the hard hits on jacked up. For some reason, it makes us feel like “real men” who are “real mean badasses”. Meanwhile the players end up crippled and disabled in their 40’s and die in their 50’s. We are engulfed in a culture where the violence is more celebrated than the skills and the intelligence needed to succeed in sports.

   That’s the reason I’ll make damn sure my son never plays football when he goes to high school. If he is at all inclined towards sports, it’s going to be tennis or soccer its more about skills and stamina than brute strength and speed. I don’t want him crippled in his 40’s.

3. Good Morning from Omaha,

   The players and fans don’t get it. Concussions are forever. The brain never really heals and any additional scarring from hits just adds to the trauma. Concussions put Troy aikman out of the game and probably others that have not been in the spotlight since they left the game.

   When someone who is injured on the field of play FINALLY sues the nfl and gets there attention- things will change. They will get hit in the wallet and this hooeey will change but not in time to stop the invisible carnage that is taking place inside the helmets of todays stars.

   Yes I love football, and yes I love it at all levels- high school, college and pro. somewhere along the line it has to be taught not to hit someone with your helmet and in the head. the helmet to helmet hit Its a technique that is not taught and it happens on rare occasions but when it does there needs to be some action taken like an ejection, immediately from the game. PERIOD.

   Strive for excellence, nothing but your best.

   Gene

4. Football is a brutal, vicious, violent game, i.e. modern day gladiators. Today’s players are bigger, faster, and stronger and they use all that protective equipment to inflict as much damage as possible. These players know what they signed on for and the only way to stop the concussions and other crippling injuries is to stop playing the game. But that will not happen because we silly fans need a fix for our blood lust and these modern day gladiators provide that fix.

   As for an injured players suing the NFL, good luck with that one. The players know the risks and have accepted the risks.

   Regarding what happened to Darryl Stingley, he was hit with a CLEAN, SOLID, TEXT BOOK tackle. That play has been reviewed numerous times and to this day NO ONE can find anything dirty and/or illegal about the hit. It was an unfortunate accident and part of the game and life, ACCEPT it and move on.

   When Jack Tatum died earlier this year John Madden had this to say:

   “Even though the safety co-wrote a book called “They Call Me Assassin” after his career ended, Tatum was never called “The Assassin” during his playing career, Madden said.

   “After the book, people started to call him ‘The Assassin’ and say that that was his nickname, which was never true, and that he called himself an assassin, which he didn’t,” Madden said. “The story is that he’s a high school All-American and he’s recruited to Ohio State as a hitter. And he’s praised to be a hitter. And he plays at Ohio State and he’s an All-American, because he’s a hitter. And he goes to the pros and is a first-round draft choice because he’s a hitter.

   “And then he hits a guy, the guy doesn’t get up, and they call him an assassin.”

   http://deadspin.com/5598492/jack-tatum-killed-darryl-stingley-and-we-made-him-do-it

5. I’m also curious why the NHL, which has equally hard hits at much higher speeds and on a substatially harder surface (and with less protection for players) has far fewer injuries of the same type.

6. Badger,

   The boards give and they don’t have the problem with helmet to helmet hits. It’s essentially an equipment difference.