(September 23, 2018 at 8:19 pm)AFTT47 Wrote:(September 23, 2018 at 6:21 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: Worst rule change ever.
Probably has something to do with the recent discovery that football players are suffering major brain injuries.
I'm frankly amazed at the expectation of "business as usual" in the face of that. There are going to have to be major changes to the sport if it is to survive.
You can't take a game which is based on violence and make it non-violent. The fans want to see big hits. But it is not the big hits that cause CTE. It is the accumulation of smaller hits or "sub-concussive hits" as the doctors call them which causes the damage. I am a hockey fan and in the 90's I coached my son's freshman team. Like every other coach I was telling my boys to "finish your checks." What that means is that if a guy is coming down on you and passes the puck, the defender needs to step into him and bump him to prevent him from getting a return pass and going in 2 on 1 on the goalie. I would never say that now. The hitter gets just as much impact as the hittee.
I belong to a hockey board and a lot of the old timers complain that there is no snarl in hockey anymore. They're right. The league has taken steps to cut down on that sort of stuff and the more noticeable fighting. And the game has gotten more boring because without the body checking it is little more than figure skating with a puck. But the NHL has been sued by its players too and like football, which had to settle the case or get their heads handed to them, they have to pretend that they are addressing the issue.
