Roger Goodell: Give us back the NFL

I agree with Troy Polamalu: the NFL is being emasculated. This season, the league has been handing out fines to players like free kittens after any particularly rough play.

Keeping players from injury is an understandable and noble goal, but at a point, measures taken to keep the game safe and clean damage the spirit of the aforementioned game. Quarterbacks cannot be protected like priceless Fabergé eggs. Hitting one hard should not constitute a finable offense.

This is a sport which, distilled to its essence, revolves around large armored men running toward each other at high rates of speed and often colliding violently. Playing football involves some inherent danger. Participants will get hurt on occasion.

The NFL seems to be trying to prevent this inevitability by imposing fines on every blitzing linebacker who so much as sneezes on a quarterback after he releases the ball, every safety who so much as bumps into a wideout after he runs out of bounds.

Some of the most ridiculous recent examples include San Francisco running back Frank Gore’s $5,000 fine for grabbing the facemask of Seahawks cornerback Kelly Jennings on a freaking stiff-arm (How does one stiff-arm without applying a hand on or around the facemask of the stiff-arm recipient?) and the $10,000 fine against Steelers linebacker LaMarr Woodley for sacking Jason Campbell “in an intimidating manner”. Linebackers aren’t allowed to intimidate anymore, apparently.

Obviously, these are not the only cases of wanton fining. Roger Goodell, the Comissioner of the NFL, has been throwing around too many to mention. These are just a few notables.

Since when has a 15-yard penalty been not enough to punish players who break rules? Most of the time when rules are broken, it’s not a deliberate attempt to cheat or gain an advantage, it’s a consequence of the speed at which football is played.

A player who makes a tackle by the face mask is usually just grabbing whatever he can to take down a ball carrier. A defensive lineman who roughs the passer usually does so because a 300 pound man has a lot of momentum and often can’t stop before hitting a quarterback. A block in the back on a kick return is usually a consequence of the chaotic nature of kick returns.

In the worst cases, players are receiving fines for incidents that referees didn’t even see fit to penalize during the game, such as the Woodley sack. He didn’t hit Campbell dirty, just hard.

Fines should be reserved for things that are blatantly unsportsmanlike. They should be used to punish fighting, dirty hits, not just hard ones, off-the-field issues, and things of that sort. The way they are being thrown around this season really does weaken the sport. It takes away from the toughness, from the spirit of the game.

Players must be allowed to do what it is they do best, that is, play, without fear of league retribution for them playing too hard.

Let them hit hard. Punish the dirty players, not the tough ones, not just the mean ones, only those that deliberately cause injuries and flaunt the rules. Restore the toughness of the NFL, and don’t use more fines to silence those like Polamalu who speak the truth about the direction the league is taking. Stop the madness.

Roger Goodell, give the NFL back its balls.