Clothesline in the Brees

Player safety. When the NFL started delving into player safety, I was for it. I don't mean that to sound like I'm not for it anymore. But what once sounded to me like, "player safety...yeah, I'm down for that," in a "come on people, now, smile on your brother, everybody get together and try to love one another right now," kind of way, now hits my ear like some South African jackass waving his credentials over his head, saying "diplomatic immunity...heh, heh, heh..."

I'm reminded of this once again following the recent win by the New Orleans Saints over the San Francisco 49ers. The win was aided to a great degree by a late penalty on Ahmad Brooks for a hit against Drew Brees. A clothesline. That's what some Saints people called it after the game. Except, it wasn't. Brooks pretty clearly hit Brees in the chest, driving him backwards. The equal and opposite reaction to the hit was the Go-Go Gadget neck that uncoiled from Brees' torso, making the hit seem higher than it actually was.

The officials flagged the hit. Player safety...heh, heh, heh. The general problem with the play is twofold. First, Drew Brees is not very tall. In everyday walking around life, he's normal-sized, but in the NFL, he's short. Any hit on 28 of 30 NFL quarterbacks (aside from Russell Wilson and Brees) would just be a regular, un-flaggable hit. But Brees is short. The second problem  is he's Drew Brees. When you rough up Brees, you rough up the NFL's marketing campaign.

In Houston, about 350 miles away, Oakland and Houston started a pair of young quarterbacks. The short stature of Brees aside, if the Brooks hit had been made on Matt McGloin (Oakland's rookie), for example, there would have been no flag. Why? Because who cares if a rookie backup gets hurt? But if a star like Tom Brady gets hit and injured, the NFL is liable to change the rulebook...oh wait, that actually happened.

And that's the real core of the problem. The NFL is less concerned about player safety than it is concerned for star player safety. Injured stars don't sell video games, home owner's insurance or pizzas. I mean, who wants to buy a pizza from Case Keenum? And the end result, for the Niners in this case, is they lose the game. Sure, they could have scored a few more points or made a few more stops, but the bottom line is the play opened the door and the NFL was all-too-happy to walk through.

And just wait. Aaron Rodgers was injured on the most normal sack you can imagine. Someday soon, it won't be legal drag a quarterback to the ground or even rush the passer. Coming soon to a NFL stadium near you: seven-on-seven drills!