2013 NFL: hypocrisy and softness

It has been a LONG while since I wrote something; nothing really caught my eye deeply enough to ramble about, until yesterday. As almost every Sunday from the beginning of September until the 1st weekend of February I spend a good amount of the day watching football but about 24 hours ago I saw a play that just got me pissed off.

Now let me go a few months back. The NFL has been involved in a HUGE class action lawsuit due to a ton of former players demanding a pile of cash as compensation for the injuries sustained while playing the league. The whole judicial system in the US is a joke (look no further than someone suing for coffee being too hot)  and you could sue anyone at any time for something that never happened, heck you could probably get some cheese off someone you have never met, the players have a point in the fact that the NFL clearly hid a ton of information of the risks of playing football. While I believe you have to be a retard to not know that playing football is inherently dangerous I also believe you are entitled to know the COMPLETE risks of a job beforehand. With that, I believe the players have a point and so does the league. Heck, they paid 765 million dollars to shut down the investigation. For more on this check out the PBS Frontline episode of League of Denial.

This lawsuit without a doubt changed the game, and not in a way I care for. The NFL had make a shitpile of rule changes to make the game "safer" but I say it is nothing more than bullshit and hypocrisy; look no further than the possibility of the season going to 18 games.

There are a lot of injuries in every game, part of it, but they are really scared of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). While I'm nowhere near qualified to dabble on this, it basically is a messed up brain. It usually happens to people who's daily activities generate an impact on the brain, people such as football players, wrestlers (a notable CTE victim was Chris Benoit, read on him), boxers.

My issue is not against player safety. Heck, I hope they never get injured, but the NFL is taking this shit too damn far. The game is violent by nature and no matter how many rule changes you make, this stuff will keep happening. Why not just be honest with the players and whoever signs up know ALL the risks. Take for instance this hit

It was from yesterdays 49ers-Saints game. Violent? Yes. Hard? Yes. Clean according to the rules? YES. But still it was flagged and nullified a 49ers fumble recover that ultimately cost them the game. This shit really gets me pissed and turned off the product. I want a game where the players decide who wins and loses, not some incompetent refs that decide what is legal and what's a flag. That should be the NFLs job, but they are too damn busy looking at new markets and making money to even give a shit about the integrity of the game.

Personal fouls and pass interference calls are game changers and the Roger Goodell led NFL has done such a poor job to define what is PI or a unnecessary roughness call that you may see the exact same play called both ways by 2 different crews. It's a damn shame to see games go so long because refs are stupid, incompetent, and cant get their shit together

Lets be clear on something, the body was not made to play football. The hit on Brees was totally legal and no matter what the heck you do with helmets they protect the outside of the head but you can't tell me that on this shot his brain didn't have a massive impact against his skull. I hear an expert talk about the brain and to think about it as a egg; you may take care and not hit an egg so the shell wont break, but you can still shake it and mess it up on the inside.

Relating to safety I don't know what you can do, it's not my job to know. But the thing I do know the NFL can be honest with the players when it comes to risks, not make stupid rules that don't do shit to protect players, and actually be clear on what said rules are. I understand that right now their main focus is to make all this bad press go away but there is a limit to what you can do protecting your ass until you look like a puss. 

I get pissed every single game I watch but I keep coming for more, so does most of the audience so I'm not sure if we aren't entirely to blame for the NFL not caring because they know the sport keeps growing and so does the money coming in.

Khakbaz out

NFL Lockout & Free Agency

5 days have passed since the NFL and it's Players Association signed a new labor agreement (that will last until 2020), to say that this is big news for sports fans is.

I'm not that interested in talking about the fine points of the agreement but some of the changes that were made were interesting. I see 3 main points here:

• The first one being the new salary cap


• Second, the rookie wage scale


• More money for retired players

All 3 are really important and have big implications, but in all fairness it all boiled down to money. The league generates soooo much money that a .01% difference is a big deal. When I talked with casual fans on their thoughts of the lockout and how it would be resolved, most of them said that there was to much money on the table to leave it there; while I totally understand that, the fact that there is that amount is the exact problem, nobody wanted to budge and lose a couple of million here o a hundred million there.

For me the rookie wage limit is something that had to be done. You hear "the highest paid rookie in history", on literally every position, almost every year; where was this going to stop? This was a good move no doubt; the playing level is so high that many great college players are nothing more that over-paid average players, I hope this will help moderate it.

A 4 month lockout that in theory didn't cost a single game (well maybe the Hall of Fame Game), yet the players didn't have the chance to practice as a unit, there were no OTAs and guys like Peyton Manning (who had some minor neck surgery) couldn't contact the team physician with whom he had worked throughout his career, making his rehab a not-so-smooth process.

Now teams are put on the spot to sign rookies, cut veterans, renew contracts and everything that usually goes on during the off-season in only a couple of weeks. I have no doubt this will cost some of the higher drafted players some big bucks as they won't have time to negotiate a deal, it's basically take it or sitout with no time to negotiate.

Also the money being thrown around for some of these free agents is just crazy. You get a guy like Kevin Kolb, (7 career starts, 11 TDs and 14 INTs with a QB rating of 73.2) who was replaced after a couple of games last season after being named the starting QB for the Eagles by Michael Vick (who is no great QB by any means IMO), traded to the Cardinals and signing a 5 year 64M contract with 21M guaranteed. Seriously, are you kidding me? Also you got a guy like Eric Weddle (Chargers) who gets paid like he is a premier player, he is good, but not premier.

Oh well, this is how it goes. The fact is that the NFL and the NFLPA came to an agreement, no games will be lost, we have labor peace at least until 2020, and the NFL as a whole came out winning as they are the standard for how a successful league should be run -say what you want about Roger Goodell but he avoided what could have been a huge disaster.

Money will be thrown around, players will be hurt, champions will be crowned, but most importantly US FANS GET A COMPLETE NFL SEASON.

Who you got for SB XLVI?

For now, MR KHAKBAZ OUT!!!!