Free agency? Seriously?
The game has evolved so much organically on its own (and I think that's a good thing) that those rule changes are blips on the radar. Those rules didn't change the league, the league changes led to those rules.
Yeah, they let them hit the QB hard when he dropped back 10x a game and the linebackers hit like Buicks.
Now the QB's drop back 40x a game and the LB's hit like mack trucks.
They had to change the rules.
There are too many teams, so the talent level drops.Yeah, free agency blows IMO. On the pro level I've always more of a fan of the player(s) than a team, growing up the nearest NFL team was over 6 hours away.
I'm in agreement that the game has evolved, in many ways for the worse. QBs for the most part are mediocre at best because they don't learn the game anymore from HS up through college. Rules have been changed to promote scoring and to protect the players while techniques like proper tackling are ignored. Just not the same game as it was in the 70s, 80s and early 90s.
There are too many teams, so the talent level drops.
I take it you never saw Chuck Bednarik, Ray Nitschke, and Dick Butkus play.
....and the people they are hitting are bigger and faster. It hurt just as much to get hit back then.No. I don't really need to. You're talking about the elite LB's. Even if they could make it in today's NFL, the average guy from their day couldn't. Take the average LB today...they're 30 lbs bigger and they're faster than yesterday's elite.
I'm not saying the talent level is diluted. I do believe the knowledge of the game has gone down.
I think there are 32 teams with 53 players each. That represents the best 1,696 football players in the country. If there were 10 teams with 53 players, do you not think that you would then have the best 530 players, and player 531 to 1696 would not be quite as good as players 1 through 530?Talent pool is bigger, so nah.
You just said "talent" tho. Not sure what you mean by knowledge of the game (which is not related to talent at all)? Playbooks are so complicated now. Route trees. Audibles. Etc. It's all more complicated.
I say go back to leather helmets and soft pads.
Ask Frank Gifford after getting hit by Bednarik.
OK. Sorry you missed a great game. It's not such a big deal that you need to double down on this silliness. Objectively, any fan of football would call that a great game.
Gifford died of brain disease brought on by CTE.Yeah? How many concussions sidelined Gifford? Aikman and Young had to retire because of concussions. Aikman had the greatest line of all time and Young only full-time started 8 years. But dudes were bigger, faster stronger...it wasn't about one player. Everybody hits like Bednarik now.