http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Cecil

And by the way, notice how things ended up for him and you will have some idea why the NFL wants to end helmet to helmet hits. When you look at the NHL and think about the wasted career of Sidney Crosby, sports leagues had better wise up to the fact that athletes are bigger and stronger than ever and they are going to end up footing the bill for some catastrophic lingering injuries if they don’t watch out. Harrison doesn’t care now, but later whe his own brain doesn’t work right, Goodell won’t seem like the bad guy any more.

Suspending a player for a football play is ridiculous. We have ways to deal with that. They’re called penalties. Ten years from now what are they going to be doing, suspending 2 quarters for facemasks?

She said it:
If you guys don’t like the rules, change the rules. The rules say that when the QB takes off running when the freakin’ ball, he’s a runner–even if he tosses it away just before he gets clobbered. The rules don’t bother you clowns when it’s our QB getting slammed in the face and having his nose broken. Noooooo. Then it’s fine and dandy no matter how illegal that hit was.
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I love you Deb!

Ben has taken so many hits that would draw a flag on any other QB.
Heck, Pretty Boy can draw a flag by throwing up both arms and looking at the ref!

Why do they keep coddling him? In any other job, what would happen if the CEO of your company said “this is the way we’re doing things” and you told him to kiss your ass? Harrison doesn’t get to decide what the rules are. He gets to decide if he wants to follow them or find another job.

Rather than using proper technique, Harrison puts his eyes down and leads with the top of his head. This improper technique is called spearing, and it has been illegal for years. If Harrison doesn’t think he can change, send him back to his highschool coach for a couple weeks of remedial training.

Always leading with his head and putting everything he has into it, the guy is actually trying to injure other players.

How some people can’t see this, I have no idea.

The only thing that’s clear is that you’re watching a replay at about 1/10th its original speed and you’re making assumptions about a player’s intent based on what a guy does in less than a half a second in real time. That is just stupid.

Actually, no. I’ve watched it slow and at regular speed. He was sizing up the specific hit the whole way, had him calmly targeted well before the hit. It’s not about “intent”, it’s about watching his physical actions. What’s stupid is to think that such things can’t happen in a split second.

Casual fans do not care about, or appreciate, defense. The casual fan wants to see a 45-44 final score with footballs filling the sky like fireworks on the 4th of July.

Goodell trumpeting player safety is hogwash. What he really means is offensive skill position player safety. Why is it illegal for a defensive player to lead with the helmet ( and I’m not saying it should be legal, by the way) but it’s perfectly legal for a running back in the open field to lower his head and strike the defensive player with the crown of his helmet? Oh yeah, it’s because it’s the defensive player being speared in this instance and we don’t really care about them.

As covered many times on this site, chop -blocks are perfectly legal as long as the two offensive blockers involved are next to each other on the offensive line. For example, the center and either guard are allowed to chop-block to their heart’s content. On what planet it is safe for a defensive lineman to be engaged with an offensive lineman and have another offensive lineman dive at his knees? Once again, the league does not care because it’s a defensive player’s health at risk here. Defensive players are an impediment to higher TV ratings and bigger television contracts.

A defensive player can’t hit a quarterback high. They can’t hit a quarterback low. They can’t land on the quarteback after tackling him. How are you supposed to tackle the quarterback legally while running at full speed without incurring some sort of penalty?

I don’t have a problem if the NFL wants to promote player safety, what I have a problem with is the fact that they’re only concerned with the safety of players on one side of the ball.

If I thought for a minute James was trying to injure Colt, I’d say so. Did you really get that from the film? He didn’t launch or anything. At most, he dipped his head about an inch. I can see that getting flagged. In this environment, I can even see that getting fined. But a suspension? Colt was running with the ball and dumped it just before the collision. Even he hasn’t said anything about it being a dirty hit. I called out James for the hit on Massaquoi last season–which a lot of people said was legal, but it seemed like too much to me. This one seemed pretty standard. Colt’s a small guy. I don’t think a bigger QB would have been knocked senseless like that.

James has really good technique. He takes a lot of crap for contact that’s no different than anyone else’s. Some of that’s because of his own BIG mouth. But I can think of many other players–including Steelers–who play a lot closer to the edge than he does.

Urlacher, Lewis, Matthews, Mario Williams, Willis can all hit hard and do so without deliberately targeting opponents heads or trying to injure them. As a result, they don’t needlessly extend opponents’ drives, pay hundreds of thousands in cumulative fines or get suspended during playoff pushes at the end of the year.

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Hmmm… let’s see… also, quick research shows that Urlacher was fined twice in 2010 – $10K for an illegal hit on Visanthe Shiancoe and $5K for an unnecessary roughness/late hit on Stephen Peterman.

#5 seed here we come

Urlacher, Lewis, Matthews, Mario Williams, Willis can all hit hard and do so without deliberately targeting opponents heads or trying to injure them. As a result, they don’t needlessly extend opponents’ drives, pay hundreds of thousands in cumulative fines or get suspended during playoff pushes at the end of the year.

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Ray Lewis was fined in 2009 for an illegal helmet-to-helmet hit on Chad Ochocinco, in 2010 for an illegal helmet-to-helmet his on Austin Collie, and in 2011 for an illegal helmet-to-helmet hit on Hines Ward.

Because the anti-Steeler media doesn’t point out such things is the reason you are blissfully unaware.

If you guys don’t like the rules, change the rules. The rules say that when the QB takes off running when the freakin’ ball, he’s a runner–even if he tosses it away just before he gets clobbered. The rules don’t bother you clowns when it’s our QB getting slammed in the face and having his nose broken. Noooooo. Then it’s fine and dandy no matter how illegal that hit was.

Hypocrites.

You don’t watch much football, do you? It’s unlikely we’re going to get a first-round bye or home-field advantage even if we win out. And I’m not sure I want a bye. We seem to play better without the time off. We were the first NFL team to win a Super Bowl as the sixth seed.

And James was out for weeks with a broken eye socket. We did fine. His replacement isn’t a scrub. Whatever happens Sunday night. It won’t be because we lost James. And if it were, Steelers fans wouldn’t blame James because we understand that he was hitting a runner by the book. He can’t be held responsible for Goodell’s showboating. I’ve called out Harrison before when he was in the wrong. This time he’s not.

If you can’t accept the fact that you can/will be hit then play soccer. The hit was clean although the effect on McCoy was very bad, there’s nothing he can do to change it while going through the motion in full speed.

If this was the last play of the AFC Championship game on the goal line, is Harrison supposed to let him get the throw off/walk in the endzone?

If this was Ware/Allen/Peppers/your teams defensive star, you’re telling me you wouldn’t defend him in that scenario?

Get a clue.

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If Harrison does this on the “last” play of the AFC Championship game at the goal line, then it gets flagged, the offence gets another chance, (assuming they didn’t score in the first place), moves closer to the goal line and Harrison gets suspended for the Superbowl, assuming the Steelers hold on to win.

The hit is not clean; it is clearly against the rules. McCoy was standing up straight and Harrison had a line to him unblocked. Harrison had the option of lowering his shoulder and hitting McCoy hard in the chest, which would have been perfectly legal. Instead, the video shows Harrison lining up his helmet so he can smack McCoy right in the facemask. Penalty, suspension.

Urlacher, Lewis, Matthews, Mario Williams, Willis can all hit hard and do so without deliberately targeting opponents heads or trying to injure them. As a result, they don’t needlessly extend opponents’ drives, pay hundreds of thousands in cumulative fines or get suspended during playoff pushes at the end of the year.

“Yeah, I heard from the league and like I said they fined me whatever they was going to fine me,” “The thing is you definitely respect them trying to protect player safety. At the same time, it won’t change not one way I play this week no matter what the fine is. You can’t stop playing defense the way defense has always been created to play. When the receiver has the ball, your job is to disengage him from the ball. You never want to hurt nobody. I’ve been in this business too long. I just think once you start getting into these fines I don’t know how they come up with the numbers most of the time.”

James Harrison?

WRONG

RAY LEWIS said it after he hit Hines Ward Helmet to helmet. And just about every other player who was fined has said the same thing, or something very similar. They wont change their style of play. They arent saying they are trying to hurt people but what they are saying is, “The minute you try to change how you play is when you get hurt yourself”

So why is everyone jumping on what James said? Where was the outrage when Ray Lewis said he will not change his style of play?

My question is this: Would you rather have someone lie and tell you what you want to hear? You know give the heartfelt “Oh I’m so so sorry, I feel awful about the play” Or be honest and say “Look its football, I’m not trying to hit anyone in the helmet, and i havent had a penalty al year, and have done my best to not hit anyone, but its football, and sometimes helmets hit, so ive got to just keep playing my game, and hopefully it doesnt happen again, but if it does, oh well”

Here’s hoping Frank Gore and the 49ers run roughshod over the Steelers, right over whatever scrub is replacing Harrison and that Pittsburgh ends up losing the game and the division to Baltimore. Maybe Harrison and Steelers fans will care slightly more about not deliberately trying to hit other players in the head if Harrison’s actions end up costing them a first-round bye or a home game.

It was not a legal hit. It was a deliberate attempt to injure by a repeat offender against a defenseless QB.

Disappointed, I always thought you were a voice of reason among the blind majority of Steeler trolls.

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Aikman has issues, he just refuses to talk about them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/sports/on-pro-football-still-acting-as-a-leader-aikman-departs-on-top.html?scp=2%26sq=troy%2Baikman%2Bconcussion%26st=nyt

Whether or not concussions pose a problem is a medical issue the League has to figure out, Whether the rule is right or wrong is another question the League has to address as it gather evidence. But Harrison is saying he doesn’t care what the rules are.