Sadism

As you are well aware, I follow football.  Love the game.

This latest push to reduce injury by suspending/fining players who lead with their head has my complete and utter approval.

Look, the game is violent.  Got that.

But a 250 pound player running at full speed who drills his helmet into a receivers back is not "hitting hard" , he is a fucking sadist who is trying to hurt someone.  Injuring the other sides player to knock them out of a game is the act of a barbarian who is too jacked up on his own machismo to recognize that there is a difference between playing hard and trying consciously to injure.

I played for years.  I have had experience at every level.  I know for a fact that there are sadists in locker rooms.  Lots of them.  But to let them run the game, trying to tell us that their sadism is the nature of the game is an insult to the process.

Yes, there will be injuries.  Yes the game is violent.  But the conscious action of a sadist to injure another player through his contempt for safety cannot be tolerated.  The goal of the game is to tackle the other player, not to cripple him. 

If you perform an action that has a reasonable chance of permanently damaging another human, then you should not be allowed to take that action.  If you do take it, you should be punished.  If you continue to take it, you should be banned from the game.