NFL Fines

This year there have been a lot of ruthless hits in the NFL.  I believe we discussed the NFL fines in class for illegal hits, granted it was probably a couple of months ago considering I am waiting until the last minute to finish my blogs.  I was reminded about this subject when I saw that Ndamukong Suh of the Detroit Lions was fined for a completely legal hit.  I have been getting very upset this year with the fines that have been dished out for head-to-head hits and in Suh's case, a forearm to Jay Cutler's back.  Roger Goodell decided that Suh's forearm was worthy of a hefty fine.  I completely disagree with the fine.  If you look at the hit Suh basically just pushes Jay Cutler down.  Now obviously it looked bad otherwise there wouldn't have been a penalty or a fine, but it was completely legal. 

Another instance is when James Harrison got fined for making a great hit on Mohammed Massaquoi.  This hit was completely legal as well.  Harrison extended his arms out and made a hit that looked brutal, but it wasn't illegal.  I think that the NFL is stretching the fines outside of the precious rules that they abide by. Roger Goodell has looked into head to head contact a little too closely.  I absolutely agree that the first priority is player safety.  I do not agree that there needs to be a different fine every week.  Instead of looking into the hits so much why doesn't Goodell just try to improve the helmets or something.  He is ruining the game by making it soft and now players are backing off more which is affecting the sport.

The subject of NFL fines might not seem like it affects the global market when it actually makes a huge difference.  The NFL is known around the world as being the biggest contact sport.  By fining these players and penalizing them the NFL is decreasing the big hits.  That is why most people watch football is to see players get knocked on their butts.  Other countries are going to see that players are becoming soft and they will not continue to watch.  Huge hits are what makes the NFL the sport that it is.  Football  is probably the biggest sport in the U.S. besides maybe baseball.  This means that our country will lose some of our identity on a global level in sport if the fines continue.  Roger Goodell needs to ease up on the fines and let the game play out.