#Nfl flying wedge football full#

But what good is 15 yards to a person who has just sustained a craniofacial injury? In a memorable video from six years ago, Mike Pereira, who was once the vice president of officiating in the NFL, describes a brutal crackback block as warranting a foul on the offending player but then Solomonically concludes the penalty should not have resulted in an ejection!įootball is mostly unreformable because it is a lucrative business that is an integral part of American culture. Yes, we can stop breathless broadcasters from celebrating instances in which players get “ jacked up!” Even so, players continue to get “jacked up!” on just about every other snap from scrimmage.

Yet, nothing can alter the fundamentally and uniquely dangerous nature of this particular sport. Those reforms likely make a small difference.

#Nfl flying wedge football full#

Thankfully, this eliminated the position of the “wedge buster.” This would be the unfortunate special teams player thanklessly tasked with running full speed into a multiperson battering ram charging at him from the opposite direction. In 2009, all wedge formations (which involve athletes linking hands or arms and surging forward to block as if they were a moving wall) on kickoffs were prohibited. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to outlaw the sport after 19 collegiate players died in one season! As a result, the flying wedge was made illegal. No op-ed or rules committee or requirement of Guardian Caps is going to prevent what happened last night from happening again.įootball has been discussing and (begrudgingly) implementing reform for over a century. To be clear: If the goal is to prevent the type of traumatic injury that befell Hamlin and Tagovailoa and thousands prior to them, then football in the United States is unreformable. I am not so naive or narcissistic to think that my question is original or likely to stimulate change.