>>The article doesnt say that, and the picture shows him laying down with his helmet on.<<
Okay, I’ll give you that the article doesn’t state that his helmet was off. I’m in Detroit and watch local news.
So let’s say you’re right and his helmet wasn’t off. He had a CONCUSSION! With a helmet on. That’s more than a punch.
You can say what you want about “what goes on in the piles”, if adults beat a fellow player into concussion, it would be all over the lib news and the player would be punished, either by the law or the league.
Anyone who knows players who participate in Aussie Rules, Rugby or Gaelic football with tell you that American Football is a cakewalk compared to these. Maybe you beat your fellow teammates, but it’s not the norm.
Most football players get their concussions with helmets on. If you lay someone out, and they bounce the back of their head, they can get concussed.
There was nothing in the video to show kicking and punching or ripping the helmet off, which is why I believe the blogger was just trying to use sensationalism to fire people up into a Islam/Christian frenzy. Most people who never played football dont know what goes on on the field away from the ball, and most dont know what is going through a player’s mind.
As to adults, players have been giving each other concussions all the time. And in the NFL, they usually get fined. I remember Darren Woodson gave a Seahawk player a concussion (on a helmet to shoulder, not helmet to helmet hit) and got a 75k fine for it. James Harrison gets fined every year. The entire Saints team is being reprimanded publicly. And Im not defending the Star players as being good sports. I just dont think it should spill into the legal realm.
The point is, it is the norm to beat the other team senseless. The difference between rugby and football is padding. But I guarantee you every star LB in HS/College/NFL has twisted some guys ankle at the bottom of the pile when the refs couldnt see. Deacon Jones used to headslap linemen. Jack Tatum was known as The Assassin. Jonathan Vilma put down 10k for anyone who could take a QB out of the game. Even Ray Lewis and Ed Reed admitted they wanted to take a Steelers RB out of the game.