It's the Head Stupid

It happened yet again. Chris Owusu, of Stanford, was hit in the head by a defensive back in the Oregon State game Saturday. This time he didn't get up. He laid there, seemingly unconscious. The crowd, who cheered the "big time hit" and fumble that led to a possible game changing touchdown, booed as a yellow flag flutterred down; negating the fumble and touchdown

The Oregon State crowd was much more enraged by what they perceived as a bad call, of a head shot hit, than by the safety and mortality of Owusu.

As time passed, and Owusu did not get up, some stopped booing and started praying.

It has always disgusted me when a player is hurt severely in football, the fans and teams start praying, and then, when the player gets up, or is carted off, immediately go back to "kill him" chants.

Does God just look the other way to this Roman Gladiator type behavior?

And then the T.V. "experts" weighed in. Typically, they ranted about how the players could not "play the game", or "act aggressively" if head shots were called. One of the announcers, who interestingly played quarterback, went on and on about how head shots were part of the game.

Bullshit! I played four years in what was the Pac-8, and coached high school football. I was coached by some of the greatest coaches in history. Head shots are NOT a part of football, they are a product of helmets that weight way too much, and a gangster mentality that has no place in the game!

This is what a head shot really is: It is a chickenshit tackle. When a receiver is running at you, and ball is coming at you, and you are essentially stationary, it is a visual nightmare. Most DBs are smaller than the receivers they must cover. A post or stant, positions the receiver at the defender. The defender must break up the pass, or tackle the receiver. This all takes place in an instant. The EASY play is to aim your shoulder pad at the side of the receiver's head. DBs are coached to push the receiver's head, disrupt his eyes, so he can't catch the ball. If you hit the receiver's head, ESPECIALLY WHEN IS IS LOOKING BACK FOR THE BALL, more than likely he will drop the ball. The danger to the DB is minimal, unless you lead with your head, then you could break your neck and die. So, you shut your eyes (all tacklers do) and hit his head with your shoulder.

The DB will look like a hero, he will have made a "big time hit". The receiver will probably get a concussion, and you might "turn the game".

But secretly you just executed a chicken shit hit, a cowardly act where he really shyed (avoided contact).

What does that mean. Okey, I played at 183 pounds. The typical tight end in those days weighed 250. When the tight end came over the middle, I was giving up almost 50 pounds, to an object moving at me at 25 miles an hour. Think about it! A head shot is a coward hit.

Head shots have NO place in football, they never have, never will. Many times, if you try for a head shot, you "whiff" (miss), and the receiver trots into the endzone. If you do hit him, you can kill him. That is courage????

Fractured skulls killed so many football players at the turn of the 19th century that Teddy Roosevelt almost banned the game. Many colleges dropped football in the late 19th century, because young men were dying. The flying wedge was banned, and helmets required, and fractured skulls stopped. Concussions did not.

Getting your "bell rung" was so common when I played that we didn't even tell the trainer most of the time. My ears have rung constantly ever since, every day, along with an aching back, from my big time college football years. I can remember (?) sitting in front of my locker trying to remember my combination (many just left their locker unlocked) because of getting my bell rung almost every week.

And that was practice, game collisions are twice as strong.

The idea of football is to tackle the opponent. If his knee touches, he is down and the play stops. If you can break up the pass, by hitting the ball or intercepting it, that is your job as a defensive player.

Hitting with great force supposedly cowers the opponent, making them fearful, so your team can win and dominate.

Think about that for a minute. In NCAA D1, ALL the players are all state. All the players, even the bench sitters, are "football players", not pretenders like high school. There are very few physical cowards out there. Getting hit hard is part of being a football player. A huge hit is simply forgotten, the idea is to score more points. You can wear a team out with conditioning and physical play, the "big hit" just isn't consideded by the players. In fact, a chicken shit hit, only motivates a team to play harder.

It's the crowd that craves the big hit. It is the Roman Gladiator effect that does this.

Calling and fining head shots must continue, and must be inforced more strictly. There can be no exceptions. Those players who do it consistently need to be suspended or driven from the game.

Owusu was wearing a mouthpiece that registers the force of head shots. Data from that hit is transmitted to a receiver that records the violence of the hit. I will bet that the data from that hit will astound any scientist. The wonder is he ever got up. The intensity of head shots is MORE than we estimate, the damage to the brain is MORE than scientists care to admit.

Football is a great game. And it can remain a great game without the "crowd pleasing" head shot. There is simply no purpose in pulverizing athlete's brains, so they go prematurely senile, or have a whole host of other brain impairments.

So, the next time a head shot happens, and the crowd roars, tell them to shut up. If an idiotic announcer prattles on about how it is "part of the game", switch channels.

Mark my words, if we don't end head shots now, the game will end. The scientific data that is finally being considered, cannot be ignored.

We don't have to kill players to win!