NFL Week 7

['7']

The NFL is now what the NHL was from the late 70's through 1994 or so.

 

Up until the mid 2000's I guess scoring and offense numbers were pretty normal. But now it's gotten to the point where even 4800 yard passing seasons are ho hum. 50 td passes? meh. Drives are kept alive by penalty's on legal hits and good football plays. PI is called way too tight. The offensive lines get away with everything, but if a defensive player gets a fingernail on a QB it's 15 yards and the drive continues.

 

What the NFL doesn't realize is that allowing defenders to bump, hold, and obstruct the receivers a bit more will do is minimize these catastrophic midfield collisions. Of course these guys are getting plastered every week by the Ryan Clark's and Meriwethers of the world, they're allowed to take off from the line like sprinters and nobody is allowed to put a finger on them.

 

Now I hate clutch and grab, hook and hold hockey...but in football allowing a bit more of this stuff will keep guys safe. Passing numbers will diminish, but so will lawsuits.

 

Also look at the equipment they wear. This is a wide receiver in 1991  this is a wide receiver today pop warner shoulder pads. Nothing to protect his chest, elbows, upper arms. Many receivers even go without thigh pads

 

Shoulder pads are a joke. Of course when you hit somebody shoulder to shoulder your helmets are going to crash into each other as well. Bigger shoulder pads...the helmets won't be cracking into each other

Edited October 22, 2013 by '7'

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

'7', the first big rule change came in 1978.  In 1977, team scoring was down to an average of 17.2 points per game.  Look at the QB numbers from back then...finishing a season with more TD passes than picks was a big deal.

 

The big rule change was the 5-yard contact rule.  Prior to 1977 d-backs could bump receivers all over the field.  Almost makes you wonder how anyone ever got open.  But offensive numbers and QB ratings went up nicely after the change. 

 

I'd say from that time (I'm guessing the product was probably getting to be hard to watch by the time the contact rule was implemented) up until about the early 2000s, it seemed like the balance was pretty fair.  But all one has to do is look at Tom Brady's TD-to-INT numbers prior to 2007 to realize that it's gotten way out of whack:

 

pre 2007:  147 TD, 78 INT (anything approaching 2-to-1 used to considered great)

2007-on:  195 TD, 50 INT (almost 4-to-1, which even for a SEASON was considered awesome, let alone over several seasons)

 

Yes, Brady is an all-time great.  But did he really get THAT much better in the space of one offseason?

 

We're basically on the same page...let the d-backs slow guys down a little bit.  I get that the game we all loved clearly led to a lot of guys becoming vegetables later in life, and I'm all for player safety...but like you point out, guys are free to fly down the field full-steam like never before.  A lot more high-speed collisions now.