James Harrison, the hard-hitting Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker nicknamed 'Silverback' by teammates, is a bona fide brute. But that doesn't make him wrong. After sidelining two Cleveland Browns players with vicious - but unpenalized - hits during last Sunday's 'NFL Concussion Awareness Day,' Harrison was fined $75,000. Harrison was also criticized for saying, "I try to hurt people" and, "A hit like that geeks you up," and he supposedly considered retirement when the NFL announced a revamped initiative to stamp out illegal hits by suspending or ejecting offending players.
The league has plenty of nice guys and class acts, but for every Peyton Manning, there are 10 men like Ray Lewis and Harrison. Lewis was indicted for murder charges in 2000 - though they were later dropped - and Harrison almost committed that offense when he nearly decapitated Cleveland wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi last Sunday. Rick Reilly portrayed hard hitters like Harrison as sadistic Neanderthals. But it comes with the territory.
The NFL trails only professional fighting and rugby on my sports savagery scale, and although the league is often dubbed the 'No Fun League,' the 'No Fear League' is far more appropriate. Many NFL commentators will start sentences, "To be successful in this league-" and then finish with some borderline moronic statement like "-you've got to put points on the board." Allow me to add another obvious observation - to be successful in this league, you must be fearless, aggressive and sometimes a little suicidal.
Case in point: Today, precious few tailbacks regularly run out of bounds to preserve their bodies, as Hall of Fame Steelers running back Franco Harris did during the 1970s, and instead lower their heads and shoulders into onrushing defenders for an extra yard. Behind closed doors, numerous players undoubtedly echoed the thuggish sentiments of Miami linebacker Channing Crowder, who vowed to keep hitting with his helmet until the NFL takes it away. There's a reason that an NFL player's average life expectancy is rumored to be about 55 years - almost 22 fewer than the average American.
NFL old-timers and purists will tell you that tackling is a lost art, that modern players would rather mash their own Madden 'hit stick' than make a solid form tackle. This observation has some truth to it, but it forgets that since pro football's inception, offenses have become incredibly skilled and sophisticated relative to their defensive counterparts. A few 2010 teams, like Rex Ryan's New York Jets, still preach defense-first football, but Rex's Jets are a far cry from his father Buddy's 1985 Super Bowl-winning Chicago Bears squad. Led by linebacker Mike Singletary, the 1985 Bears defense - probably the most dominant defensive unit ever - allowed just 11 points per game and posted four shutouts before plastering the New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX.
Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan deserve plenty of props for the 1985 Bears' success, but while watching highlights of that season, I am stunned by just how bad the opposing offenses were. In today's NFL, dominant defensive performances are nigh impossible to sustain for entire games, let alone entire seasons. Where the Bears' deadly 46 defense used to be proactive, the advent of smart, skilled, high-octane offenses like those of recent Patriots and Colts teams have forced defenses into a more reactionary role. Harrison's hit on Massaquoi glaringly stands out because it is one of the rare occasions when a defense gets the better of an opposing offense. The offense-centric reality of the contemporary NFL means that defense - and by extension, tackling - becomes more difficult than ever.
Deliberate head shots, like Patriots defensive back Brandon Meriweather's hit on Baltimore's Todd Heap, have no place in the NFL for the sportsmanship and health-related reasons outlined by the league. That said, Harrison's helmet-to-helmet knockouts of Massaquoi and teammate Josh Cribbs were not intentional but rather the unfortunate, split-second result of defenses trying to regain their old edge against superior offenses. This effort has involved a psychological as well as physical element. Players who face the Ravens and Steelers - two of the most feared defensive units of the last decade - don't need to get their clocks cleaned to know that Lewis and Harrison look to level opponents every chance they get. Cribbs defended Harrison and urged him to keep playing the same way, adding, "I would do the same." The intimidation factor has an impact on games. But with the NFL cracking down on the physical and psychological edge that the remaining few, elite defenses depend on, that imbalance is tilted further to the offensive end of the spectrum.
In 2007, the New England Patriots set an NFL record by scoring 589 regular season points. In 2009, the Arizona Cardinals were one win away from a berth in Super Bowl XLIV despite surrendering a combined 90 points in two playoff games. In 2010, Denver's Kyle Orton is a top-five NFL quarterback. Kyle Orton! Furthermore, dominant, hard-hitting defenses endure just as much pain as they dish out courtesy of collateral damage, as seen by the constant injuries afflicting Baltimore's Ed Reed and Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu. Defensive players already face an obstacle course of officiating restrictions, and with suspensions and ejections now added to the mix, it will only encourage more teams to scrap the age-old mantra of "defense wins championships," go for broke offensively and reap the rewards.
Gregg Easterbrook highlighted the need for the NFL to clarify and enforce rules that protect players and set a good example for younger football players. Bill Simmons noted the hypocrisy of a league that cracks down on concussive hits "to protect players" while pushing for an 18-game season. My brother, an avid Steelers fan, took another route and called NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell "the Nicholas Cage of the league" - a guy in the center of a very good production who does his absolute best to ruin it. I concur with all of them but don't want to share my byline, so here's my own take - I love an offensive shootout as much as the next guy, but there's a reason that Arena Football is as popular as a canker sore. What good is the NFL's precious parity if it doesn't apply to both sides of the ball? If the league cannot distinguish between intentional, suspension-worthy head-hunting and the unintentional by-product of good defense, the latter will cease to exist altogether.
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