I'm sure many of you saw the rant from Mitchell, and he said a lot of good things. Here's the full interview, and he talks about Shazier, the fines and Godell and his way of handling infractions: I agree with a lot of what he said, and he seems like a pretty straightforward and honest guy. I don't think he's dirty, maybe borderline. The Hasselback thing stems from his hit on Alex Smith, which I thought was dirty as heck in real time. Even watching the replay in game I thought was dirty. But after zooming out a little, he did get a shove from his own player (I think it was Chickillo). Didn't appear to be a big push but if he was off balanced, wouldn't take much to make him fall. Again, borderline. I may not like how he celebrates routine tackles, but then again the past few years those tackles are pretty big accomplishments. I may get frustrated that he goes for the hit instead of looking for the ball sometimes, but I don't think he is dirty.
Mike Mitchell isn't dirty. He's frustrated in this video that football as he knows it appears to be dissolving right before his eyes. I wish more players were unafraid to speak their mind on topics like this, even if I don't necessarily agree with them. Player safety IS important, and the less flagrant contact they have to take, the better. Plus, Cincinnati was out of control. This is a perfect time to revisit what can be done to stop insane outbursts like the game. Fine the team or teams, not just players. Make ejection more of a threat than it is. I want to enjoy my rivalry games, not walk away from them disgusted. Mitchell is an enforcer. If the NFL makes more stupid rule changes that further pussify the sport, then I would side with him. Rule changes that affect how he plays the game (within the rules that exist currently) would be the wrong way to go. They need to make the current rules less reliant on interpretation and make punishments for breaking them harsher. I wouldn't mind extra close officiating present at Steelers-Bungles games in the future, just for these teams. This would also affect Raiders-Broncos games with the Crabtree-Talib drama.
I can't get on board with Mitchell's rant. If he wants to blast the NFL for their lack of structure and consistency I'm in 100% agreement but the players have to take the head shots out of the game. Yes, occasionally I believe there are times where a player aims low and the offensive player ducks, moves or falls and the helmet-to-helmet is accidental. But more often than not it appears the offender is just taking a careless approach. JuJu could have hit Burflict legally very easily if he just aims for his sternum. Iloka could have and should have aimed lower. The clip I posted of Stephone Anthony in the GBU thread was especially brutal, after the ball was gone and the defender literally jumped up into the chin of Sanders. Those plays simply need to be removed from the game by whatever means necessary.
These new “protecting the players” rules and fines come from the billion dollar law suits. If there weren’t any law suits the NFL would have done very little over the last 5-10 years creating these new safety rules. At the end of the day it always comes down to money. Please advise
