.png)
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said in an interview before the Super Bowl with CBS's Face the Nation that the NFL is considering putting a ban on the traditional three-point stance used by offensive and defensive linemen since the sport of football was first conceived.“As you’ll see tonight, you’ll see a lot of players that never get down in a three-point stance,” Goodell said Sunday. “So it’s possible that would happen.”
The argument is that abolishing the three-point stance would prevent the explosion of one player into another play after play and that starting with your head down is dangerous. It's true, starting with your head down is dangerous, which is why you're taught since day one to always have your head up.
This is as much a ridiculous response to poor football fundamentals as it is to "player safety." If players in the NFL actually paid attention to the things that six-year-olds are taught, it would never be an issue.
When I first heard about this proposal, I became so infuriated that I had no idea what to say or think. As a football player, and offensive lineman, since the age of six, the mere thought of doing away with something so fundamental as the three-point stance is sickening.
I would equate it to getting rid of tackling with your shoulder and only using your arms (something done far too often already), doing away with the forward pass, or the asinine prospect of moving the field goal post back into the endzone.
And the statement that "a lot of players never get down in a three-point stance" is downright wrong. The only players who do not get in a three-point stance along the line are the offensive tackles on obvious passing downs when they want to get a head-start on the defensive ends... who are, in fact, in the three-point stance.
If the NFL implements this rule change, it will be the straw that breaks the camel's back, so to speak. I can't speak for everyone, but I can guarantee that I would never again watch the NFL.
I'm not sure if my allegiance would then fall with college football, the UFL, or perhaps the Arena League that will be restarting in 2010, but I do know it would fall in line with football -- not the nonsense that the NFL is on the verge of selling.
Sure the AFL is a different kind of football, but at least the players are still allowed to hit in the AFL.
Right now the rules are a bit ridiculous. Attempting to eradicate injuries in football is never going to happen. It's a violent game, and if these guys don't want to get injured than they should try their hand at basketball, baseball, soccer, or maybe golf. However, the NFL is still quality football.
This new rule would destroy that and turn it into as much of a sport as the WWE.
When I played high school football, my coach would make us sign a waiver that he lovingly called "signing your life away." We didn't get paid a penny and did it happily.
