It seems every year there is an increase in penalty flags, but there was a noticeable drop in field laundry during the 2020 season largely due to CoVid-19. Before that, things like holding calls and clarifying what a "football move" was garnered criticism for slowing the game down to glacial paces. In 2021 we have seen a shift away from those sorts of calls, in favor of a deluge of penalties concerning player safety. There are several reasons for this, but none of them are reasons the fans like. Is there a way to save the sport before it truly becomes flag football?
The NFL coverup of CTE and the extent of their knowledge of its long-term effects was one of the biggest sports scandals of the 2000s. The fallout of that was massive financial settlements from the owners and a desire from all sides to make the sport safer. That sounds innocent enough, but it quickly became clear the league was mainly interested in making the game safer for their most important player, the quarterback. Over the last decade, rules have been made that allow refs to call a penalty if a QB is so much as breathed on, meanwhile defensive lineman are getting cut off at the knees by a 300-pounder. The parity is obvious.
From the fan perspective, player safety flags are good when they come after malicious intent, especially if a player is injured. What we are seeing instead from league referees appears to be the blanket approach, where flags are thrown at the slightest transgression by a defender concerning a position player. When penalties are called on acts that do not affect the play, or happen without intent such as a defender getting blocked into a QB after the ball is thrown, those are the ones that set the fans' hair on fire.
Despite all these player safety flags, we are still seeing players get hurt at high rates. Why is that? Well, it's mainly because football is a dangerous sport, and the human beings playing it are faster and stronger than ever before. Oddly enough they are not bigger than previous generations, in fact players are getting smaller at almost every position. This is because smaller, stronger, faster people are having more success from the speed aspect over size in the modern NFL. This also means smaller people taking faster hits, and that leads to more injuries in general.
While size is a factor, that's not the main thing that changed between the 1990s and now. After the CTE scandal, the NFL Players' Association gained a lot of power in collective bargaining agreements and by 2010 had effectively bargained practicing out of the equation. Prior to that, NFL teams had the power to impose some truly Draconian training methods on players, and though the extremes were not generally employed by most coaches, some were known to hold some grueling camps. To prevent injury during non-game activities, the players fought and succeeded in limiting the number of full-contact practices they had to run. The era of the "walk-through" began, and the era of fifteen players getting hurt every game also started right around then, too.
Now let's get to this season. Everyone can admit we are seeing a lot of bad football. It's highlighted even more so by spreading the games out on prime time four or five nights a week, per the NFL's new TV contracts. In 2021, 35 backup quarterbacks have seen action across the league, either as starters or coming off the bench. The number of practice squad receivers and running backs activated has been astronomical. That's a recipe for disaster right there and add on the gratuitous penalty flags and you have a lot of snoozers.
The biggest cause of the injuries is the lack of full contact practices. As the hits get harder, the only way to train the body to absorb them...is to take them, preferably in a controlled practice setting where rehab doesn't affect game-day availability. The players don't want this because they don't want to get hurt in practice, they want game checks and incentives. This philosophy has created the injuries, and when less talented substitutes take the field with little preparation in their stead, we get a much worse fan experience.
An interesting fact to note is the new concussion protocols have made huge strides in protecting all players from brain injuries by removing them from a game when they have potentially suffered head trauma. Concussions will never be eliminated but identifying them quickly and placing players in a regimen before returning to action is the best way to mitigate the damages of the sport. Many of the flags being thrown concerning quarterbacks are the result of defensive actions that clearly wouldn't have caused a concussion, so why are the flags being thrown at such a high rate? That swings back to the lack of practice, which has caused soft tissue injuries from all positions to skyrocket. Hamstrings and ACLs and MCLs can handcuff a team's season, and when star players like Christian McCaffrey aren't playing, the team and the NFL lose money. It will always be in the league's interest to remove as much contact from the sport as possible because contact leads to injury which leads to lost seasons, empty stadiums, and hurt wallets.
Another unintended consequence of the CTE coverup was a shift away from youth football, with parents opting to have their children play "safer" sports, like soccer. Most kids don't play full contact football until middle school, sometimes even high school, and this lack of experience leads to a narrow pool of talent for colleges to recruit from. In addition, players of the past were conditioning their bodies for football from young ages, leading to less minor injuries suffered from routine activities. Fast forward to the NFL draft and the talent is even more watered down, with the gap between the starters and the rest of the depth chart getting more and more distant. That's why, when the starters are getting hurt at high rates, the game suffers more so than usual when the backups come in.
So how do they fix it? As much as I would like to bash the league, the CTE coverup era is over and the players need to readjust their mindset. Currently their agenda centers around manipulating the owners to create easier paths for players, but eventually they will have to meet in the middle to protect the actual sport of football. Nearly every current and ex-player state that they understood the risks and would do it all over again if given the chance. Now that everyone is on the same page about the dangers of football, they need to get back to playing it. The NFL has a 100% injury rate, and everyone knows it. The best way to mitigate the injuries and keep the penalty flags off the field is to get back to training the bodies of the players to take the beating that is called football. The NFL won't stop throwing flags, because they know that when the backups enter the game, the product suffers and that's bad for business.
For every fan, coach, and player comment about the excessive flags, think back to why there are so many flags in the first place. It all stems from the aftermath of the CTE bombshell, and the overcorrections that followed. If we want a better product on the field, fans should be hoping the new collective bargaining agreement includes some NFLPA recessions in the training department. When the players who proudly claim to be modern-day gladiators begin protecting themselves from the sport through training, the NFL won't lean on the refs to eliminate the parts of the game that cause the most injury.
Looking at you, NFLPA.
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