Ellerbe remains questionable for this Sunday's game vs the Bills.

I posted a little while back about the unnecessary hits going on in the NFL. Do you guys remember the play in which Ellerbe got hurt?

He recovered a fumble and while laying there, an opposing player came crashing down on Ellerbe's prone body. Very unnecessary. All the player had to do was touch him down; no way the opposing player could have recovered the fumble and Ellerbe had been down for a considerable amount of time before getting hit (and made no movement to have the player think Ellerbe was going to try to get up and run with the ball).

These guys have proven over and over that they can no longer tackle, so they take these shots instead.

Is it a wonder there are so many injured players this year?

Cap, with the present day refs, you don't know. If you place your hands on him carefully then sure, they will call him down.

But you figure that maybe if you hit him hard and the ball comes loose, maybe they call it a fumble because the ball is still live.

So what do you do when you weigh those two things? If he were a military guy under your control in combat, what would you tell him to do under circumstances that could be analogized?

No, nobody really tries to cause injury IMO because they are all on salary and they are brothers under the skin in that your opponent one year may be your teammate the next year. Sure, certain player rivalries occur but that happens in the business and blue collar world as well.

But I just don't buy this prevailing sentiment that the players intentionally try to hurt each other. After that bounty crap, even less so.

Do you really think that this analogy makes any kind of sense?

Rick

ChyrenB Wrote:
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> Cap, with the present day refs, you don't know.
> If you place your hands on him carefully then
> sure, they will call him down.
>
> But you figure that maybe if you hit him hard and
> the ball comes loose, maybe they call it a fumble
> because the ball is still live.
>
> So what do you do when you weigh those two things?
> If he were a military guy under your control in
> combat, what would you tell him to do under
> circumstances that could be analogized?
>
> No, nobody really tries to cause injury IMO
> because they are all on salary and they are
> brothers under the skin in that your opponent one
> year may be your teammate the next year. Sure,
> certain player rivalries occur but that happens in
> the business and blue collar world as well.
>
> But I just don't buy this prevailing sentiment
> that the players intentionally try to hurt each
> other. After that bounty crap, even less so.


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Chryen, I'm not saying that the defender was intentionally trying to hurt Ellerbe. I am saying many of these hits are unnecessary. The defender could have let up on his hit with the same result - Ellerbe is down. Hoping to knock the ball loose is moot because Ellerbe was laying on top of it and wasn't going anywhere.

Not sure the military reference can be used here as in combat we are talking life and death, whereas in sports, it's just that - sports.