Quote:
Originally Posted by REDSKINS4ever
Have you seen films of Dick Butkus hit players? Butkus played at 6'3 245, and was a very powerful hitter. Regardless if the year is 1968 or if the year is 2012, a 245 pound man is a 245 pound man. If Butkus played in today's NFL, his hits would carry the same weight as it did in the time that he played. Jack Tatum was 5'10 200 pounds and without a doubt THE MOST ferocious hitter in NFL history. He once paralyzed a man from the waist down on the gridiron(Darryl Stingley).
The pro game has always been violent. Although the players today are stronger and faster, there were those players way back when who undoubtedly could play with the same viciousness in today's NFL.
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Yup Butkus was vicious.
Ray Lewis is a sissy.
If your point is the game has always been violent. I agree - it's one of the reasons I like it.
If your point is that yesterday's players were tougher than today's player. I disagree and believe your suffering from "old man back in the day syndrome". When comparing pre-mega NFL to today's Super-Powered-Entertainment-Driven-Mega NFL, there are lots more things going into these decisions. In part, there is a heightened awareness of how you can be crippled for life after playing the game for 10 years. Does this result in more caution by player? yes. Does having this foresight mean the player lacks toughness? No. I would suggest they are independent of each other. Also, 20 years ago (pre-CBA, Mega-NFL) players were cheap and disposable. Now, not so much. Often times the players aren't the ones making the decision, owners and coaches have too much invested in these guys to let them risk playing with injury. [Show me any comment by Helu indicating he is happy to be going to IR - bet you can't].
If your point is that Helu is a sissy/cream puff. I disagree and say the jury is still out. He apparently had a serious achilles injury over the summer and tried battling through it. Playing at this level, however, requires a performance level slightly higher than that required of safety on a high school football team ... oops, excuse me a
starting safety. An injury that slows Helu down a step or two makes him a pedestrian back at best. [ BTW - I too had a foot injury and, while I could do all sorts of mundane workaday sh** and play some back yard football, if I needed speed or quickness, it simply wasn't happening. It wasn't the pain, it was just the foot didn't work right].
Ultimately, just like their have always been vicious hitters, there have always been "tough" guys. Look at Lewis, while I don't particularly like the guy, no doubt he is one of the toughest meanest SOB's in sports. Toughness? Let's talk London Fletcher. Sorry, you got your "back when I was a kid" glasses on which carefully ignore the hundreds of Helu type guys from the 50's-80's b/c they didn't stand out.