Sports Issues: Hard Hits in the NFL

In the past few years, the NFL has been looking closer at hard hits. This is because many retired NFL players have had many brain/skull injuries after their years in the NFL, and players have received many concussions from helmet to helmet contact on tackles. Today, the NFL fines and/or suspends players for any illegal type of tackling, which is mostly any helmet to helmet contact.

Does this rule make the NFL any better? I think not. Back in the early to mid 1900s, players didn’t have the equipment and padding that NFL players have today. Of course, players back then also weren’t as fast and strong as the present ones either, but there are a lot more concussions happening now then back then. Especially in the past few years, these concussions have been happening the most frequent.

And, the fines and suspensions really take away from the game of football. Fans don’t get to see star players just because they hit a guy too hard or didn’t hit them right.

Isn’t that what football is about anyway? People like football because of the contact, and though players are receiving concussions sometimes from the hard hits, these rules that the NFL has put into play don’t affect how many players get concussions from hard hits. People will continue to do it whether it’s a rule or not. The only different outcome is that they won’t be receiving a game or two off, or not losing a couple hundred thousand dollars.

For another article on this, click here.

Sports Issues: Colleges Switching Conferences

The College Conference issue started when Nebraska decided to go to the Big Ten about a year and a half ago. Their movement out of the Big Twelve caused Texas A & M to leave also, but they left for the SEC. The Big 12 then looked for a couple teams to replace the 2 that had left, and they selected West Virginia and TCU, two Big East teams at the time, to be in the conference. Nebraska’s movement caused many teams to switch conferences, and now no college is ever certain if they will be in the same conference by this time in the next year or so.

The conference switching has also destroyed many old rivalries like the Texas A & M vs. Texas rivalry. The Aggies had played the Longhorns for  118 years before A & M decided to leave for the SEC last year. With many more teams on the move to switch conferences, many other rivalries will be destroyed and forgotten.

The conference switching has also destroyed powerful conferences. Last year, the Big East had 17 teams for basketball and 9 for football. Once TCU and West Virginia left, it triggered Syracuse and Pittsburgh to leave also for the ACC. Just a week ago, Rutgers left the Big East for the Big Ten. Now, Louisville, UConn, Cincinnati, and South Florida could all be leaving for the ACC.  If the conference switching keeps going on in the next few years, the Big East might not even exist.

If I could do something about this issue, my choice would be to make everything go back to the way it was. Traditional rivalries would still occur, and conferences would never have to worry about replacing/getting rid of teams.

Sports Issues: The One and Done Rule

In April, five players from the Kentucky Wildcats declared for the NBA draft. Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gillcrist, Marquis Teague, Terrence Jones and Dorron Lamb all decided to go pro after just one year of playing college basketball. This is just one of the most recent examples of the one and done rule.

A few years ago, high school basketball players had the option after their senior year to skip college and go straight to the NBA if they were good enough. But in 2006, the NBA implemented the one and done rule. The rule states that high school basketball players can not go straight to the NBA after their senior year, and that they must play at least one year of college basketball before heading to the pros.

In my opinion, this rule has ruined college basketball. Players like Anthony Davis, Michael Beasley, and Kevin Durant saw college as a place that stopped them from making big bucks for one year. We used to see the same old team every year, with just two or three players leaving and the same amount recruited to a team. Now, we see teams that are completely different from one year to another. Take Kentucky again for example. In the past 2 seasons of Kentucky basketball, a total of 10 players have left college early for the NBA. And this year, its likely that we will see 4 more players from Kentucky leave for the pros.

So in my opnion, either the NBA needs to add more years for college players, or just ban the whole rule entirely and allow high schoolers to go straight to the NBA just like it was a few years ago.