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Football on the outs?
Ravens' Pollard: Football won't exist in '20, 30 years' - NFL.com
Ravens' Pollard: Football won't exist in '20, 30 years'
Bernard Pollard believes the end is near for the NFL. The hard-hitting Baltimore Ravens safety has watched professional football evolve with bigger, faster players and vows the violent nature of the sport cannot be tempered by continual rule changes. He believes the equation doesn't work. "I just truly believe, another 20, 30 years -- I don't even think football will even be in existence anymore," Pollard told KILT-AM in Houston, via CBSSports.com. "... We all know what this game is about. We know and understand that it's a violent sport."
Pollard is persona non grata in New England after wiping out the knee of quarterback Tom Brady in 2008, hovering close when Wes Welker tore his ACL during the 2009 season, and injuring tight end Rob Gronkowski in January's AFC Championship Game. Pollard is unapologetic about the way he plays, and he's not alone. "If somebody is going to get a knockout shot, OK, at some point somebody is going to get hit anyway," Pollard said. "If you end up getting knocked out because you're trying to get a knockout shot, it's either kill or be killed. Which one are you going to do? This is football. It's not powder puff. When Nike unveiled their new uniforms, I'm surprised they didn't have flags on the side. ... You're taking away the game of football. If a quarterback throws an interception, get his butt down or run to the sidelines. If you're going to try to make a tackle, I'm going to look for you. I promise you, I'm going to look for you." Pollard suggested NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been hypocritical in his crusade to inject safety measures into an inherently dangerous sport. Pollard called last week's draft "a meat market," where teams openly seek out the strongest, fastest, most aggressive players available. Nobody is looking for safer, think-before-you-tackle defenders.
Pollard doesn't believe anybody attached to the game is about to turn down the piles of money flowing in. "When it's all said and done, (Goodell) and (NFL Players Association executive director) DeMaurice Smith said they would take a dollar (in salary) if we were locked out," Pollard said. "We were locked out. I guarantee they didn't take a dollar. Ask them what their salaries were. Everybody wants to talk about these players lying to Roger Goodell. What about them lying to us? What about them lying to you?" Strong words, as always, from Pollard, who admitted he doesn't want his son to play the game he plays, only to endure the fierce trail of physical ailments that come with it: "I don't want him to have go through it. I don't want to see my son with a concussion."
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thats all i read from that.
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If that happened I'd be building
I'm sure Goodell would find a way to fine him too.
Last edited by short faced bear; 05-05-2012 at 09:51 PM.
Arguing on the internet is like winning the special olympics, even if you win your still messed up.
Restore the roar!
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Wasn't NFL more brutal back when they played with leatherhelms? I mean all those 2012 equipment must be way better than the old ones.
Comming to think about NHL when goalies had .. well I woudn't even call it a helm.. facemask is the right word for it I guess, and the other players didn't need a helm/facemask lol.
The hard tackels, the fights.. that's what people want to see. I can tell you from the Danish NHL there is NO fights at all, because then they get gamemisconduct, which is imo destroying the sport.
So my point is I guess: Don't remove the game, or make it a game for cry babies like that one Jimmors posted.
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You can get brain injuries in pretty much every sport save for maybe.......tennis/golf? I guess that means they're going to do away with everything and force sports fans to watch those instead? Then it will be the fans that get the brain injuries - most of which will be self inflicted.
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Originally Posted by
Evernight 
You can get brain injuries in pretty much every sport save for maybe.......tennis/golf? I guess that means they're going to do away with everything and force sports fans to watch those instead? Then it will be the fans that get the brain injuries - most of which will be self inflicted.
Yeah I think the sports that make the least money will be done in or watered down first. Boxing, MMA, hockey, name it.
Arguing on the internet is like winning the special olympics, even if you win your still messed up.
Restore the roar!
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Originally Posted by
ZifanQ Wasn't NFL more brutal back when they played with leatherhelms? I mean all those 2012 equipment must be way better than the old ones.
Comming to think about NHL when goalies had .. well I woudn't even call it a helm.. facemask is the right word for it I guess, and the other players didn't need a helm/facemask lol.
The hard tackels, the fights.. that's what people want to see. I can tell you from the Danish NHL there is NO fights at all, because then they get gamemisconduct, which is imo destroying the sport.
So my point is I guess: Don't remove the game, or make it a game for cry babies like that one Jimmors posted.
NFL'ers used to wear leather helmets back in the day but comparing the speed of those athletes to today's just isn't fair.
Just my take but I would tend to agree with Pollard. When you have significant names like Seau's in the news because he ended his life in the wake of this growing head trauma story that is not good for the game as we know it. At the end of the day, we know very little about the brain and how repetitive head trauma damages it. It could very well be that repetitive head trauma played a role in these players' lives to the point of making them consider taking their own lives.
HBO's Real Sports has broadcast some amazing stories about this issue and if these players' stories are any indication SOMETHING MUST BE DONE in the NFL to protect the guys that choose this life.
HBO Real Sports 2007 SLI Concussions Part 1 of 2 - YouTube
I think that the NFL should take a look at rugby and Australian rules football. Those guys don't play with any head protection and I wonder what the correlation to their historical head trauma is. At the very least, those footballers and rugby players DO NOT use their heads as a weapon because if they did it very well could kill them.
Last edited by purplejokr; 05-10-2012 at 05:33 AM.
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High Fives / Like - 2 High Fives, 0 Dislikes
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Originally Posted by
Evernight You can get brain injuries in pretty much every sport save for maybe.......tennis/golf? I guess that means they're going to do away with everything and force sports fans to watch those instead? Then it will be the fans that get the brain injuries - most of which will be self inflicted.
Wrong.
You can get a golf bold in your face at high speed if you're standing at the wrong place wrong time. Same goes for tennis. A tennis bold with around 60 MPH right in the face, might course a concussion. :P
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So to sum it, you can get brain injuries in every sport.. Some bigger than others tho.
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Originally Posted by
purplejokr NFL'ers used to wear leather helmets back in the day but comparing the speed of those athletes to today's just isn't fair.
Just my take but I would tend to agree with Pollard. When you have significant names like Seau's in the news because he ended his life in the wake of this growing head trauma story that is not good for the game as we know it. At the end of the day, we know very little about the brain and how repetitive head trauma damages it. It could very well be that repetitive head trauma played a role in these players' lives to the point of making them consider taking their own lives.
HBO's Real Sports has broadcast some amazing stories about this issue and if these players' stories are any indication SOMETHING MUST BE DONE in the NFL to protect the guys that choose this life.
HBO Real Sports 2007 SLI Concussions Part 1 of 2 - YouTube
I think that the NFL should take a look at rugby and Australian rules football. Those guys don't play with any head protection and I wonder what the correlation to their historical head trauma is. At the very least, those footballers and rugby players DO NOT use their heads as a weapon because if they did it very well could kill them.
We can all agree that what happened to Shea is a horrible thing, however you gotta be careful you don't destroy the sport. Perhaps NFL should just make it more clear to college/high school players what risk there is involed with playing football. I like the new kick off rule, however rumors said that some was thinking of removing kick off totally, which I think is taking a way one of the charms of the game.
We all remember Hester's kick off return in the SB, those things must stay in NFL.
Changing the rule of head use is perhaps a good thing, but don't let the sport get wrapped into bubble wrap.
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Just one more over reaction to what happened this past week. Does the game need to be made safer for the player, yeah. Does it need to go away or turn into flag football, no.
