My4Albany

The NFL has a problem. For those of us who don't play it's a GOOD problem. But for the league in general and for the men who strap on helmets each week it's a MAJOR problem.

Players have simply gotten too big, too fast, too strong, too quick, too fearless, too dangerous. Scary, potentially life-changing collisions used to be a rarity, a once or twice a season occurrance. Now they happen once or twice a game. Players laying motionless on the field, teammate and opponents kneeling nearby, thanking their lucky stars that it isn't them being attended to.

So far, the NFL is at a loss at for what to do to make the sport safer. Here's why: there's no answer. That horse has left the barn...and it stampeeding over everything in it's way. In the last 20 years football players have gone from being big guys and pretty good athletes to huge, chistled machines who can run a 40 in 4.5. The players are outgrown the sport.

And so it really should come as no surprise that violent, potenially deadly colissions are taking place on nearly every play in every NFL game each week. For years the league embraced this element of the game. Promos and highlights show were filled with the best hits. But...when players involved in those hits stopped getting up...the NFL decided to stop glorifying the violence and making "protecting players" a focus.

However...all the rules and fines and suspensions are not going to make NFL games less violent or NFL players any safer.

Pro football has reached the level of auto racing when it comes to safety. You can take all the measures you want...but the only way to eliminate the danger is to keep the participants in the garage.