Is the NFL Getting Soft?

Football players are some of the roughest, toughest, most physical people on earth. They look like everyday guys on the field, but when you meet one in person you see the hands that look like anvils, legs literally the size of tree trunks, and a persona that says fear me—if you know what's good for you.

However, in light of some of the rule changes and the amount of fines being levied this season one can't help but wonder if the league is well on its way to becoming—perish the thought— too soft.

To protect the players bodies from some of the punishment that the game can induce on it, the owners have changed the rules in order to eliminate some of what they perceive are the more dangerous plays from the game. The changes in kickoffs over the last couple years are a perfect example.

Blocking rules have changed (no wedges anymore), but the big change was moving the kickoff up to the 35-yard line from the 30. Many fans have grumbled saying that it takes away a possible game changing play since fewer kicks will be returned (9 returned for TDs in '11 compared to 23 in '10). The NFL counters by pointing out that the decrease in returned kicks (40 percent) is directly related to a decrease in concussions suffered during the same play (53 percent).

Reducing the number of concussions is a good idea, but there are some players that would argue changing how the game is played in order to do so would be a travesty. To them the game is what it is; a violent, aggressive, intense contest where people do on occasion get hurt. It sucks, but injuries are a part of the game.

The NFL would probably counter that by pointing out the couple thousand former players that are pursuing lawsuits against the league related to injuries suffered—especially concussions-- during their playing careers.

This is not to say that all rule changes geared towards player safety are bad. Historians of the game know that Teddy Roosevelt helped changed the rules of football in order to save the game. Many wanted to abolish it due to all the deaths that were occurring during games.

Protecting players is a good idea. However, the league has taken this too far in fining players for darn near anything and everything. Fines are getting dropped like dollar bills by Pacman Jones at a strip club (or Vince Young at a Cheesecake Factory). Players are even getting fined for plays where no flag was thrown!

Jay Feely—a kicker—was flagged in Week Four for a late hit when his kick had gone out of the end zone and he hit someone. The call was right; his hit was late, but then he was fined $7875 for the play. Come on man--he's a kicker! Was it really that hard?

Feely will probably be bragging about this fine for years to come,"Y'all remember that time I hit this dude so hard the NFL fined me?" Is that what we want for the NFL? Kickers thinking they're tough guys?

The league is doing this in order to make players think twice before they make illegal hits, but where the league fails is in thinking that players do think before they hit someone. Football at the professional level moves too fast for there to be a whole lot of conscious thought. Guys act and react; that is it.

What players are going to end up doing is thinking so much about not getting fined it is going to take away from how they play the game, and in the end the game itself.