I also saw that they are considering forbidding RB from lowering their helmet to collide head first with a defender.

Well, it is an infraction for a defender to lead with a helmet, so why should it be any different for a running back trying to avoid being tackled?

Well, I personally don't know if anyone on the NFL rule change committee has ever played football, but that's what they are proposing.  And if you read what they are proposing, it is about "choice", that is, choosing to initiate contact with the crown of the helmet.

“We are going to say that you can’t make that choice ducking your head and delivering a blow, a forcible blow, with the top crown of your helmet.

“We are trying to protect the runner or the tackler from himself in that instance. We are looking for the obvious fouls in this one.”

You should take up your funny observation with the committee that proposed the rule change.  I am just the messenger.

http://bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/03/16/nfl-bosses-consider-rule-changes-league-meetings/8Iu0yaZ4nPfGIIzK263vyH/story.html

yeah, I saw that.  I think the league has made clear that if they adopt the rule, it will be designed to disallow the RB from spearing the defender.  

"If a RB doesn't want to get hit, he should choose another career."

Well, it's not about being hit, but rather about spearing the defender.  The same could have been said about a DB 30 years ago.  "If you don't want to duck your head and spear the WR/RB while making a tackle, then you should choose another career."

I am for any rule that makes sports less about intentionally trying to injure someone.  Gladiator games are long gone.  
 

I am all for saftey as long as it doesnt take away from the game.  I could careless about players getting injuried.  I do care about the long term effects after there career has ended.  Still these guys know what they are getting into.  they could choose not to play the game.  Imo all saftey rule suggestions should be made by the players union.  If the players dont have a problem with their working conditions then why does the league.  That is the purpose of the union.  

APIAD wrote:

If the players dont have a problem with their working conditions then why does the league.  That is the purpose of the union.  

One possible reason could be liability issues.  For example you could say the same things about fans who attend sporitng events, they went by choice . . . even paid money.  If a car crashes on the race track, a wheel comes off, and kills a young girl in the stands, whay of it?  But the race track owners understand they might be liable, so they install lots of safety precautions to prevent that.

And yet the owners erected the fence . . . 

The moral of the story is that it is better to make a symbolic gesture than to do nothing at all:

"Well, we instituted a rule forbidding leading with the helmet.  Any other cranial contact is incidental to the game, and players have to assume some risk.  Heck, even ping pong players can throw out their elbow."

Max wrote:

And yet the owners erected the fence . . . 

The moral of the story is that it is better to make a symbolic gesture than to do nothing at all:

"Well, we instituted a rule forbidding leading with the helmet.  Any other cranial contact is incidental to the game, and players have to assume some risk.  Heck, even ping pong players can throw out their elbow."

Except that as Emmitt Smith and now Matt Forte have pointed out, the NFL would be increasing the risk of injury through implementation of the rule.  A runner who runs standing straight up (the only way to not lead with the head) is exposing his ribs, inner organs and soft tissue to an oncoming freight train in the form of a LB  or safety. 

It's like erecting the fence at the race track but designing them in a way that the fence falls on the fans when contacted.  They aren't preventing injury, they're just changing the damaged body part.

"The moral of the story is that it is better to make a symbolic gesture than to do nothing at all:"

I'd rather see them do nothing at all. In fact, I think Nascar ought to sell curbside seats and award bonus points to the drivers who run over the most fans. Tit for tat. The spectators are mostly there to see the drivers crash and die, so why shouldn't the drivers get in on some of the fun?

 

APIAD wrote:

So artie hates nascar and those who like it...lol

I don't hate Nascar. I just don't see the appeal of watching people turning left for three or four hours. You want to see some impressive driving? You should have come with me this morning on my ride to work while I dodged plows, UPS trucks, 18-wheelers, and old ladies in Cadillacs that didn't have to be on the road while it was snowing.
 

"Football is a popular sport because no matter how drunk or lack of attention you pay you can still figure out what is going on."

My wife and my mother-in-law being exceptions. As much as used to try before I gave up, I couldn't get my wife to understand down and distance. She doesn't understand when it's 3rd-and-eight and the running back picks up nine yards why the resulting down is 1st-and-10 and not 1st-and-9. "He should get extra credit for that yard ..."
Like a lot of people in New England who think the first football game ever played was the Tuck Rule game, my mother-in-law has watched every Patriots' game with her hen friends for the past decade and still hasn't picked up one thing about the sport. We had a party for family and friends a few years ago on a Sunday afternoon and the Patriots were playing the Jets on TV. Randy Fucking Moss made a 1-handed catch and was pushed out of bounds at about the Jets' 1-yard line, and my mother-in-law emitted her signature "Aaaayyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeee!! Woo!! Woo!! Woo!!" screech whenever the Patriots do something good. Two seconds later, CBS showed the replay, and she emitted the same screech like Fucking Moss had made the exact same catch on a subsequent play. My buddy, who was drunk at the time, said to her: "Would you please shut up? It's a replay."

forsberg_us wrote:

"My buddy, who was drunk at the time, said to her: 'Would you please shut up? It's a replay.'"

I hope you brought him another beer.

The only time he had to leave his chair for the rest of the game was when he had to use the bathroom.