James Harrison Hit Sticks:

I understand that the NFL and the sport we all know as American Football is a sport made-up of highlight real hits on the defensive end ,but, where do we draw a line in the sand? I know that a lot of people probably won't agree with me, and they'll say that this blog is everything that is wrong with the way the NFL seemingly guards star players. I'll be the first to say that players like Tom Brady have caused too much protection for certain positions and yes, Brady is a baby at times in a sport that is brutal and made for tough men to compete by beating each other down, play after play. But, some changes that have been made to better guard QB's were for the better and some changes do need to be made to better protect our NFL wide-outs. Your average NFL caliber wide receiver is around 6 feet tall and weighs around 185lbs. Now, throw in the fact that these players are, at most times, leaping in the air or stretching out for a catch, while a defender lays in wait like a predator, ready to ambush his prey. This to me equals a disaster waiting to happen, especially if this predator is built anything like 6'0, 242lb, James Harrison, of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Come on James, is "blowing up" defenseless WR's really the only important aspect to your game (aside from german-suplexing the occasional Browns fan)?

I've heard of a division rival but, jeesh, the city of Cleveland might want to consider an order of protection against James Harrison.

I mean, is James Harrison really going to convince anyone that this hit against Mohamed Massaquoi, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81dS21QTgkQ (sorry for the terribel quality) ,was anything but an illegal hit? NO, there is no way that any sensible human being is going to buy that this was a clean hit. You could play that clip in James Harrison's home, on his home computer, in front of a jury, consisting of 12 of his closest friends, all waving terrible towels and the verdict would still come back as guilty. I'm sorry, i love the way Harrison plays the game, for the most part, and i love the big hits (that are clean) but, i hate to see a guy go out onto the field, "blow up" a 170lb wide receiver and then piss and moan about how he's going to retire because he got fined 75,000 big ones. I understand that 75k is a hefty stack of chips, that would give me all of the motivation that i needed (as a player) to hit the practice field and begin to alter the way i approach my tackling mechanics. Harrison feels that he was taught, and or taught himself a certain way to tackle and he feels like the NFL is picking on him a little bit, and they probably are using this past week's injury spread as a foot-hole for embracing new tackling rules designed to proctect WR's a bit more. The only point that i'm trying to express is that if, you love the game of football, and you want to be a part of these magical Sunday's, and you want to represent your franchise and teammates to your fullest potential, then teach yourself some new strategy of how to approach players who have less time to brace themselves for the "big hit". The only increase we're going to see "blowing up" is the fines and suspensions against these battle-clad warriors on the defensive side of the ball. Clean it up boys, or pay the price.