"Health" Archive

New England Patriot Brandon Meriweather, Atlanta Falcon Dunta Robinson, and Pittsburgh Steelers James Harrison were fined for flagrant and helmet-to-helmet hits this week $50K, $50K, and $75k respectively. The NFL has now made it very clear they intend to crack down on egregiously violent hits-basically this means they’re going to enforce rules that are already in place.

USA Today posted reactions from players around the league. Most of the players are on the same page-they think that football is about heavy hitting and they don’t want to be fined for contact that is due to velocity rather than intention. While I understand their concern, the alternative is to allow these hits to continue to go unchecked which will breed (or possibly has already bred) an atmosphere where such hits are intentional or at the very least not avoided by players. Remember a few years ago when late hits seemed to be all the rage? Yeah.

You can read the various reactions, but the one that I thought encapsulated the general sentiment among players the best is this comment by Washington Redskins Strong Safety (and heavy hitter) Laron Landry:

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When I ran across this article I was a little surprised. I never figured Tiki Barber to be the type to help anyone. That’s terrible, but he’s just not one of my favorite people. Anyway, apparently, Tomlinson contacted Barber for some advice on how to adjust to being an older player successfully. Tiki obliged and directed Tomlinson to the trainer who helped him stay in game shape.

Whatever they’re doing is working. I looked at the stats and if Tomlinson stays healthy (quite a feat in today’s league) he’s on pace to match or exceed the number of receptions he’s had in previous years.

This is one of those little nugget articles I love. I’m always interested to see which players have relationships with which other players and why.

Read about it here.

Minnesota Viking Visanthe Shiancoe is one of my favorite players at one of my favorite positions. Tight Ends are so versatile they’re getting lots of attention this year, and Shiancoe is earning his. A notoriously healthy eater, Shiancoe has had some trouble staying at his ideal game weight (240lbs). Minnesota’s local news caught up with Schiancoe at a steakhouse and produced this short clip.

The Washington Post reports that the Jets, Giants, and Chargers are among the increasing number of NFL Teams covering part of the costs of security details for players. This is great news. Obviously, the NFL is concerned about some of the incidents that have happened with players from DUIs to altercations at night clubs. Still, no matter the reason, I’m glad they’re doing this.

For a long time it seemed as though the NFL didn’t really take seriously the threat that some players face when going out. People seemed confused about why players would be driven to carry guns or avoid employing security that might be intrusive. With security companies like Player Protect (run by a former football player) players’ actions in clubs or wherever else they go are confidential so not only is there a sense of physical security, there’s privacy as well.

It sounds as though some players are still skeptical about the service, but given the circumstances some find themselves in, I think it’s worth trying at least once. The reporter profiled Justin Tuck as one of the routine users of the service. i’m not surprised because he seems like a good guy and has had nary an incident that I know of. Good for him.