Paterno - No Facemask
Best suggestion yet to address the head-to-head issues. Anyone thing that PSU is under a disadvantage under the current rules and would benefit from more stricter rules regarding head to head hits. I tend to think of psu coaching its players to wrap-up and use shoulders / leverage vs. turning your body into a missile.
over 1 year ago
kmpsu
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What if the hurricane head-to-head collision’s name is Head-to-Head Ditka?
@EpicTripod
SBN - Pittsburgh
Success With Honor
by Jeff Junstrom on Oct 20, 2010 8:04 PM EDT up reply actions
Mike Ditka will win the Indianapolis 500 driving the team bus
The Theory of Evolution states that only the strong survive. Maybe so, maybe so. But the Theory of Competition states that, just because they're the strong, doesn't mean they can't get their asses kicked.
Ehhhhh
I think you trade one set of issues for another in that case. No facemask? Then you got guys gouging eye, ntentionally and unintentionally. Guys getting punched out, elbowed/kneed in the mouth, etc. It’s a violent sport and some manner of protection is needed. Yeah, I know rugby doesn’t have huge padded helmets with facemasks, but rugby also doesn’t have 260lb guys that can run 4.4 40s and had bad childhoods. Rugby has more of an "open" feel to it like soccer, whereas football, especially the NFL, feels like condensed chaos. Every play lasts only 4-5 seconds and has at least half a dozen bodies converging on each other at full speed. You remove the facemask or the entire helmet, and I think you’re jumping out of the pan and into the fire.
Luring recruits with my new "Posting HD" scheme since '08.
Better Trade-off
I would rather see bloody noses and lost teeth than concussed (sp?) players. The former can be fixed with cosmetic surgery, the latter can leave you as a vegetable either immediately or later in life. My whole problem with the hits are that it teaches pee-wees and high school kids to hit like that. Which pretty much throws the “the nfl players know what they are signing up for and get paid for it” argument. You need to change the incentives for these players and I think JoePa’s suggestion might help to do that. Plus more fines and penalties.
Forget about missing teeth or bloody noses…without the facemask, you’re looking at a real possibility that you’ll have more critical injuries than a concussion. Like a guy unintentionally losing an eyeball on national TV when his ocular cavity gets shattered by an inadvertent elbow from a lineman.
We’re not dealing with guys from the 1930s that are 180 pounds soaking wet. These guys are large and powerful, and even incidental contact on a halfback dive up the middle could wreck a man’s life. I really think the best way to limit concussions and these kinds of hits is to aggressively reprimand the player and the team. Or, start imposing weight ceilings on certain positions. Bring NFL linebackers, defensive linemen, and offensive linemen back down to more human dimensions.
Luring recruits with my new "Posting HD" scheme since '08.
Weight
Interesting last suggestion. That might help to eliminate HGH and other performance enhancing (i.e. weight gaining) drugs from the game as well.
and start introducing diuretics
and bringing in “wrestling” type weight issues.
by The JuggerNitt on Oct 20, 2010 5:50 PM EDT up reply actions
Hey, hockey players do it.
Of course, they get the dental work that goes along with it, but that might be worth the trade-off.
AND they're currently dealing with a rash of concussions and rules about hits to the head.
Bacon is almost as great as being a Penn Stater
IMO many concussions
are a byproduct of the way offense is played these days with all the spread formations and receivers crossing all over the place. If you look at James Harrison’s hit on Massequoi, for example, Massequoi runs himself all the way across the field into the area Harrison is covering. Small wonder he then gets plastered. Maybe coordinators & QB’s shouldn’t be hanging the receivers out to dry like that. Not sure if removing facemasks would change much.
Joe Paterno Apologist
Interesting
I would love to see concussion stats from 2000-2010 compared from 1990-1999, but alas many concussions were probably “lost” from that time period.
it would be tough to make a comparison
since the diagnosis procedures are better now than they were before
by The JuggerNitt on Oct 20, 2010 5:51 PM EDT up reply actions
Disagree.
The spearing hits are often more spectacular on the plays you describe, but the style of play that leads to aggressive use of the helmet is not a new thing.
"Drink Night Train, go to the basketball game. Throw up under the bleachers."
by ReadingRambler on Oct 20, 2010 6:46 PM EDT up reply actions
I'm amazed that...........
washed up old Joe Paterno can offer such sage advice. The game passed him by years ago, how did he come up with such an idea? It must be good because I’ve heard a bunch of other guys half his age saying it (days after Paterno).
For an out of touch, uninvolved old squirrel, he sure finds an acorn once in a while. Hmmm.
When you put those black shoes on tomorrow, and you put on that jersey without your name on the back, and you put that plain helmet on, that's tradition. Penn State tradition!
--Who else?
@EpicTripod
SBN - Pittsburgh
Success With Honor
by Jeff Junstrom on Oct 21, 2010 11:26 AM EDT up reply actions
I say this in all seriousness
Why are they still using metal grills for a facemask? Wouldn’t it be safer, better, and cooler looking to use motorcycle helmets? Aren’t Motorcycle helmets safer? Wouldn’t eliminating the facemask penalty entirely improve footall dramatically, while also making it safer? Guys like LT are already wearing visors, so is it really that far off from what we see now?
You’d have to accomdate the players need to hear/talk, but other than that, why not?
McGloin Despite Them
Preaching the McGospel since Aug. 2nd, 2010
going full motorcycle helmet would make it less efficient to breathe
and would fog up a lot easier
by The JuggerNitt on Oct 21, 2010 12:43 PM EDT up reply actions
A good, a refreshing look at the subject
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5708701
I’m glad the NFL is only concerned about this to save the money making QBs and WRs. I too promote the use of helmets as weapons. I mean the league gives them helmets, why not use them as they were rightfully intended.
by The JuggerNitt on Oct 21, 2010 12:44 PM EDT reply actions
sounds like he has had too many concussions.
I see his point about that is how they want them to play and knock people out but to think its not doing damage, he is a tad uninformed on the issue.
He HAS been saying this for 15 years.
Back when Lavar was at PSU, someone asked Joe if he thought holding wasn’t being called often enough against opponents trying to contain Lavar. Joe’s answer was that nobody held back before facemasks; if a guy held you, you punched him in the nose, and then he didn’t hold you anymore. What a beautiful deflection of the question. And no one knows if he’s serious….
Bacon is almost as great as being a Penn Stater
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