How To Fix The NFL

The NFL is considering changing some rules in order to prevent "devastating hits" on its players. I believe this was exacerbated by the terrible injury suffered by Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand on Saturday. LeGrand suffered a spinal cord injury and is currently paralyzed from the neck down. I have some thoughts on all this.

First, in the interest of complete disclosure, I'm a football coach in Texas where football is king. Having "admitted" this, my views might surprise you. I have no problem with punishing a player who launches himself at another player and leads with his head. This is dangerous and borderline criminal behavior. I feel there are some other things that are not getting a lot of attention that could, and should, be done if protecting players is truly a priority to the league.

First, coaches need to actually teach and insist on proper tackling techniques. We teach our kids to ALWAYS "see what you hit." This keeps the tackler from ducking his head and leading with the crown of his helmet. This protects both tackler and ball carrier. This, seemingly, is not emphasized by the NFL coaches. Besides making the league safer it would improve tackling in the league, which is currently absolutely pitiful. The terrible injury suffered by Eric LeGrand came as a direct result of his lowering his head and hitting the ball carrier with the crown of his helmet. Some players are going to be injured even when they use proper technique to make a tackle; however, I strongly feel that if LeGrand had kept his eyes up and was seeing who he was about to hit he would not have suffered a catastrophic injury.

Second, in regard to preventing concussions and head injuries, coaches and trainers need to actually fit the helmets on these players properly. A football helmet is not made to be comfortable. It is meant to be a protective device. I have never seen so many helmets flying off players as I have the last two years. It is ridiculous. In 15 years of coaching I have never had a players helmet fly off his head. NEVER. I realize the NFL players are bigger and faster and this needs to be factored into the equation but the fact is these player's helmets are bouncing around on their heads and far too loose-fitting. This is dangerous as an ill-fitting helmet is almost like not wearing one at all.

Third, and this deals with protecting quarterbacks specifically, get rid of the rule against intentional grounding. This would allow a QB to be proactive and protect himself. If the QB throws the ball away he has already surrendered a down. That is penalty enough as those downs are incredibly valuable. This would take the onus off of the officials to make some sort of judgment call as to whether the hit was too hard, high, low, or late.

I really feel that many of the issues football is dealing with now could be alleviated by paying attention to these three areas. Fines and suspensions are not going to do it.