Urn Luck

Posted August 25, 2006 By Patrick

urn luck

Where was the NFL's Players Association when the players needed them on a safety concern

I was happy to read that a NFL player like Hines Ward spoke out on behalf of the [NFL] players. It's funny that the [NFL Players Association] just let the league change the rules on hard-hits to the head in the middle of the season with--fines. Hey, the league has every right to make the game safer for the players--I get that. However, they should follow their own collative bargaining agreement when [they] want to turn around and heftily fine-players. I believe that is called a-- unfair labor practice in the players contract; and the Leagues Players Association should have represent the players as soon as the first player had to pay one-dime of a fine. You just can't expect players that have been taught from an early age to take his opponents head off at any chance that they get, to stop the opponent.

The NFL & The Players Association could have [worked together] and came up with a player warning system for the rest of this season (2010-2011) similar to soccer and hockey. If, lets say [player-A] is charged with a violation hit to a opponents head helmet to helmet, he would be charged with [unnecessary-roughness] and ejected from the remainder of that game. Furthermore, [after further investigation by the league] the player would be suspended for a game or so if necessary, and then the player would have a fine-dollar amount attached to the violation. At the end of the season the league would get a good idea of what kind of fines it would be collecting; and the players would be ranked based on their fines assed against them. That ranking would cause their trade value to go down because of the suspensions and time missed on the field; not to mention the possible monies lost and game day salaries lost do to suspensions.

Lets say a given player making $ 4,975,750.00 his base game weekly salary would be about: $310,984.00 and for this season he was a [real] "Head Hunter", suspended one-game and fined three different games totaling $25,000., $25,000., and $50,000. This player would be out of a total of $410,984.00 for that given season, but luckily for him this was his warning season (2010-2011) total because he had a good Players Association Representative and a League that followed its own collective bargaining agreement. In a perfect world this would be a great solution and furthermore, the monies fined to a given player should go back to a community of his choosing Pop-Warner, Middle-School and High-School athletic programs of that Community.

Don't get me wrong I love the game of football, however this was a good opportunity for the NFL to show that they cared for the players and their safety by working with the Players Association and coming up a pragmatic solution to vicious hits to the heads of players. The funny thing is like Hines Ward mention in his statement that the League was hypercritical on several different issues; get this the week they decided to start assessing fines they forgot they were selling DVD's of the ["NFL's Greatest Hits"] on their website.

I understand that the league felt obligated to do something about the growing problem with head injuries due to vicious helmet to helmet hits. Hines Ward may have gone a bit far by saying the League doesn't care about it's players. If that was so the NFL would not have funded the research that ousted the connection between head injuries and ALS or Lou Gehrig disease. Thus, resulting in them forgoing their own Collective Bargaining Agreement which is never good for the players on the eve of the possible lock-out by the League and lost of the NFL's (2011-2012) Football season.

To read the Hines Ward article go here: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Hines-Ward-blasts-NFL-for-hypocrisy-on-player-sa?urn=nfl-290933

To read about connection between head injuries and ALS go here: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5470059

Hey, if you like this subject matter please post a comment and share with others.

Stay safe and good luck!

About the Author

Urine luck !

.
Thanks for coming to our website. I hope you find the Urn Luck information that you are looking for. Below are some other Urn Luck items which you need..