Football in today's society has become a joke to many people. My generation grew up watching those bone crushing hits, we grew up with understanding that football was a violent game. When you think about it, that is part of the reason why it is so popular in our society. Take hockey as another example, while there are still a ton of people that love the game for what it is, there is also a bunch of people that watch it because of its violence. What the NFL and NCAA has become today is an embarrassment to its true and original nature. I know this can be a touchy subject today, I hope you take this as me voicing my frustrations and opinions towards this game that I once loved.

My first frustration comes with the targeting rules that have been put into place. Now, before I get too far into detail, I want to first say that I do see the reason they are putting these rules in place. I do agree with the argument of player safety. At the same time, I would like to bring up part of the reason why I am writing this post; because of the fact that football is a violent game, these players know what they are signing up for. With that being said, the reason why the NCAA and the NFL have put these rules into fruition is because of the 2012 Big 10 championship game. When Kenny Bell laid down one of the most violent (but clean/legal) blocks ever made in the history of football. When you watch this play in slow motion, you can clearly see that Bell took out the defender with clear shoulder pad to shoulder pad contact. Bell was flagged for unnecessary roughness. The announcer (Gus Johnson) became angry saying "That's football! What is he supposed to do?" Keep in mind the player Bell hit (Devin Smith), was no more than ten yards from the ball carrier, in full pursuit, trying to make a tackle.

Now, fast forward to today, there are rules that have been put into place that would have considered Smith to be a "defenseless" player. A defenseless player is defined (by the NCAA) as a player who, because of physical position and focus of concentration, is especially vulnerable to injury (NCAA 2-27-14). An example of a defenseless player is someone who receives a blindside block. I have a couple major problems with this rule, first off, a player is defined as defenseless based off of his location on the field, and based on his position during the play. Going back to the Kenny Bell block, this perfectly clean hit would be considered targeting because it was a blind side block. That situation involved a player who was ready to make a tackle, under today's rules, Bell would have had to of either let him make the tackle, or try and cut the ball carrier off, and block him from the front. This probably would have prevented Nebraska from scoring the touchdown.

I am not trying to say that the NCAA is wrong for trying to protect its players, but I am saying they are wrong in the way they try to protect their players. A defenseless player should not be defined based off of where he is during the game/play, or which direction he is facing. But instead should be based off of where they are at in respect to the play. If a player is in a full sprint, chasing a ball carrier, they should not be considered defenseless. The main goal of football is to win games, you win games by scoring touchdowns. Sometimes in order to score those touchdowns, blocks similar to that of Kenny Bell are needed. On the other side of that, players who are on the opposite side of the field, should be protected by the defenseless player rules.

I don't want you to think I hate football, because I don't, I love the game, when it is played right. I want to go back to what I said earlier about football being a violent game. Take a step back and really think about the game of football. The NFL, on average, pays its players around 2.5 million dollars per year (yes, there are some players like Aaron Rodgers, and Drew Brees that make about ten times that). They are paying grown men who can squat about 500 pounds, millions of dollars per year, to put on some pads, and go hit each other. So why change that nature? Why stray away from how the game was meant to be played? Once again, I do like that the NCAA and NFL want to promote player safety, I just feel that there are better ways to do this than possibly altering the outcomes of games, due to definitions of these rules. We might as well give them flags, make it touch, or cover them in three feet of bubble wrap.