WASHINGTON聽鈥� 鈥淎re you done?鈥�
My wife wanted to know if I was ready to go to bed. There were still a couple minutes left on the clock in Monday night鈥檚 tilt between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals, a sordid, ugly display of football that saw players from both sides carted off the field while others suffered documented brain injuries. Nevertheless, I wanted to watch the final drive. Not to see who won, not because I was interested as a fan. Just because I needed to know if any action was enough to warrant an ejection and, if not, if anyone else was going to be severely 聽鈥� possibly permanently 聽鈥� injured.
Her question felt heavier through the prism of not just this game, but the entire year. From the 鈥渆veryday鈥� injuries such as Aaron Rodgers鈥� broken collar bone to the somehow-these-are-still-happening ones, like the obscene hit Rodgers’ teammate Davante Adams took from Danny Trevathan earlier this year. Am I done, with all of this?
This isn鈥檛 fun anymore. Watching the NFL isn鈥檛 fun. If you find yourself disagreeing with that, how are you rationalizing to yourself what happened Monday night?
Early on, there was the unintentional type of hit that reminds us that, no matter how much we try to clean up the game, no matter how many equipment safety advances are made, football will remain an inherently dangerous sport with the chance to ruin a life at a moment鈥檚 notice. Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier聽鈥� one of the best defenders in the league聽鈥� ducked his head ever-so-slightly at the wrong time on a routine tackle, a split-second decision made all the time, but one that could have cost him the use of his legs.
Shazier fell to the ground, immediately grabbing at his lower back, then rolled over, flexing his right hand while looking down desperately at his legs, which would not move. It was terrifying to watch, but even more so when you consider just how simple the play was that caused it, one that didn鈥檛 seem out of the ordinary until the scene following it unfolded.
Consider , where nearly anyone with a shred of a conscious lost all interest in the game itself, just hoping that Shazier, a father and husband, would be able to walk again.
But then, there was the obvious, intentional, blindside hit that JuJu Smith-Schuster leveled on serial headhunter Vontaze Burfict, lowering the crown of his helmet into Burfict鈥檚 jaw. The hit left Burfict sprawled on the ground, bewildered, grasping for anything to hold onto before he was carted off on a board.
In college, that鈥檚 an immediate ejection and, if it happened in the second half, a suspension for the first half of the player鈥檚 next game. In the NFL, it鈥檚 a 15-yard penalty and an eventual fine. Clearly that punishment is not disincentive enough to keep these things from happening, especially considering that Bengals defender George Iloka speared Steelers receiver Antonio Brown with the same kind of hit later on the same drive (Iloka was also not ejected). While punishment came down from the league office Tuesday afternoon in the form of single-game suspensions for both hits, this is the type of play that shouldn鈥檛 need individual, after-the-fact adjudication.
The NFL鈥檚 lack of severe enforcement against these horrendous plays is proof enough that its supposed care for player safety is nothing more than lip service. The fact that the league only punished Rob Gronkowski with a single game suspension for his egregious, well-after-the-whistle hit on a completely defenseless player lying on the ground after the whistle speaks clear as day to the league鈥檚 priorities in keeping stars on the field rather than holding them accountable or meaningfully addressing its concussion crisis.
This game is hard to watch for a number of reasons…terrible for the NFL and the game of football overall.
— Troy Aikman (@TroyAikman)
The media is complicit in this as well. The ESPN headline for Monday night鈥檚 game reads 鈥淪teelers win physical game against Bengals.鈥� That鈥檚 it. 鈥淧hysical.鈥� Even through our descriptions of these plays, we鈥檝e accepted potential career-ending, life-changing violence as not just an understood part of the game, but a celebrated one. The word 鈥減hysical鈥� is a positive one in football. Just look at draft reports on this year鈥檚 defensive first-round picks: safety is a 鈥減hysical tone-setter鈥�; linebacker is a 鈥渢ough kid鈥� who has 鈥済ot the physical traits鈥�; safety is even knocked for being 鈥渘ot overly physical against the run.鈥�
This is where the NFL will eventually be forced to choose its identity. and slowly ramping up penalties only to quell outrage instead of addressing the root issue hasn鈥檛 worked for the league so far, and it won鈥檛 in the future. The league can鈥檛 have it both ways. It can either accept the 鈥減hysicality鈥� 鈥� and the lawsuits, and loss of viewership on one side 鈥� or it can make real, meaningful changes to the sport, which will inevitably alienate another side of its viewership.
In its current form, it is not only unsustainable 鈥� it has become unwatchable.
