Questions and Observations for American Football Fans

[Spongebob]

I'm not sure all the gear worn by American Football players helps that much. We still have lots of concussions and all sorts of injuries. Sometimes I think all the pads do is give players the false sense of security that they can treat their bodies like missiles and survive. And despite years of training and added rules and penalties, players still dive head first at another player, often injuring themselves and/or the other player. The combination of this inherently violent sport with new rules intended to protect certain players makes for some very contradictory penalties. I saw a roughing the QB penalty yesterday called against a Tampa Bay player who bumped into the Saints QB with about the same force you might bump into a stranger at the grocery and say "scuze me" while he was currently having his head ripped off by a lineman. No call on the lineman.