I've been thinking about this for a while and mentioned it in that thread that jadillac had about the NFL being ruined, but the more I think about it, the more I think it was done on purpose. Think about all the concussion and injury problems the NFL is dealing with now. It's all about reducing the number of heads-up collisions.
Think about the amount of bodies that are flying towards each other and instantly colliding on the average running play, and the amount on the average passing play.
Remember that the game was about to be banned by the President of the United States himself because it was too dangerous and the introduction of the legal forward pass was introduced immediately.
The flying wedge formation was also banned due to its serious contribution to injuries (curiously enough, it's also banned in rugby for this same reason). Nearly a century later, they've finally banned wedges on kickoffs for this exact reason.
Also, although the league has been mum player safety and the impact on brain injuries in the public until now, we're finally start to get evidence that they have known for a long time. Remember that we have documents released recently that showed that an internal NFL board ruled that Mike Webster's condition had been caused by football and was sneaking him some disability payments on the low. Some others were getting these payments also. This while theydidn't know what anyone else was talking about in the public.
Put this all together, along with all the extra rules on defensive holding, contact downfield, and pass interference, I believe the league has done all this in an effort to get teams to pass the ball more and, hopefully, cut down on the rate of major injuries. Star QBs are also being protected more not only because it's good to have "stars" on the field, but also because when teams usually go to their backups, they run the ball too much. Wouldn't have been too much of a problem before, but in terms of player safety and the fact that the passing game is less dangerous than the running game, it makes so much sense.
I don't think they'll ever ban the running game, since that would be way too radical of a change, but they'll just find ways to make the passing game more attractive to teams and keep on finding more and more ways to tinker with the kickoffs (like the recent rule on bunching during onside kicks) and punt returns, since it's just special teams in the eyes of most casual fans.
Think about the amount of bodies that are flying towards each other and instantly colliding on the average running play, and the amount on the average passing play.
Remember that the game was about to be banned by the President of the United States himself because it was too dangerous and the introduction of the legal forward pass was introduced immediately.
The flying wedge formation was also banned due to its serious contribution to injuries (curiously enough, it's also banned in rugby for this same reason). Nearly a century later, they've finally banned wedges on kickoffs for this exact reason.
Also, although the league has been mum player safety and the impact on brain injuries in the public until now, we're finally start to get evidence that they have known for a long time. Remember that we have documents released recently that showed that an internal NFL board ruled that Mike Webster's condition had been caused by football and was sneaking him some disability payments on the low. Some others were getting these payments also. This while theydidn't know what anyone else was talking about in the public.
Put this all together, along with all the extra rules on defensive holding, contact downfield, and pass interference, I believe the league has done all this in an effort to get teams to pass the ball more and, hopefully, cut down on the rate of major injuries. Star QBs are also being protected more not only because it's good to have "stars" on the field, but also because when teams usually go to their backups, they run the ball too much. Wouldn't have been too much of a problem before, but in terms of player safety and the fact that the passing game is less dangerous than the running game, it makes so much sense.
I don't think they'll ever ban the running game, since that would be way too radical of a change, but they'll just find ways to make the passing game more attractive to teams and keep on finding more and more ways to tinker with the kickoffs (like the recent rule on bunching during onside kicks) and punt returns, since it's just special teams in the eyes of most casual fans.
