by Darien Watkins

Created on: May 10, 2010   Last Updated: May 12, 2010

After playing the great game of American football, as well as being an obsessed fan, the hardest hits that I have ever seen have surprisingly been at the lower levels. This makes sense when thinking of the fact that the gap between experienced/talented players and novice/not-so-talented players, is much larger. In a high school game, you may have a freshman player who has never played the game before, and may be undersized, not being able to protect his or herself in a game against another player who has played his entire life, and may have a future in the sport. For example, when playing for my junior varsity football team in high school, our team was considerably more talented and experienced than the team we scrimmaged, giving us the mental edge over our counterparts. A player for the opposing team ran a predictable route that most of us on our defense has seen a million times, making it a simple adjustment to meet that ball at the receiver's chest. If the player would have had more experience playing the game, he would have had the knowledge to alter his route and protect himself while catching the ball, Instead, the hit delivered by my teammate, as well as myself, injured him for the rest of the game.

As you rise in level towards the professional game, the talent gap shrinks, and football knowledge is higher. However, the size, speed, and strength of players also increases. An excerpt from Sports Scienceran an experiment measuring the amount of force newly acquired first round draft pick Ndamukong Suh delivers to opponents on direct hits, coming up with 3200 pounds of force!  Suh's 6'4", 300 lb. frame can deliver a hit that could rival impact forces you would get in a car accident. If you have another player, moving at the same velociity, and is around the same size as Suh, there could be forces that would be deadly to the human body.

Due to these reasons, stricter rules against hitting 'defenseless' players in certain areas, usually the head or knee areas, have support from me, regardless of my love for defense and the highlights produced when great hits are made. The problem arises concerning subjectivity regarding whether a player is indeed defenseless, with the NFL labeling quaterbacks to be defenseless by default while in the pocket. But hits, such as this one put on Ravens player Willis McGahee and Anquan Boldin in 2008, could be life threatening to the players, and the safety of the game.

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