Mike Freeman’s 10-Point Stance: Has NFL Culture Really Changed Since Bountygate?

Remember that Gregg Williams is in the NFL? Because I forgot, and Adele apparently forgot how big a deal the Super Bowl halftime show is. This is the last time Williams and Adele will be in a sentence together. Ever. 

    

1. Forgive but never forget

I saw Williams on television the other day. It was the first time I’ve seen him in quite awhile. I forgot. I actually forgot. I forgot the hell Williams brought to the NFL.

“Kill the head, and the body will die.”

Williams, now the Rams defensive coordinator, became a line of demarcation between old and new football when he was with the Saints. The old NFL: Where head-hunting was OK. Where unmitigated violence was acceptable. And the new NFL: Where a series of rules did more to protect players and disallow that type of violence—and the rhetoric meant to inspire it.

“We’ve got to do everything in the world to make sure we kill Frank Gore’s head.”

Williams was the warp core of Bountygate—a flawed, totally screwed-up NFL investigation. But the one part the NFL got right was exposing Williams as a provocateur of almost evil rhetoric. It was all exposed on a leaked audiotape (Warning: NSFW language). I’ve included italicized portions of that audiotape in this column.

“Every single one of you, before you get off the pile, affect the head.”

Williams was suspended for a year following the NFL’s investigation, during which he acknowledged bounties were paid to encourage the injuring of other players.

“Early, affect the head. Continue [to] touch and hit the head.”

Williams deserves forgiveness, but we should never forget.

“We need to find out in the first two series of the game—the little wide receiver, No. 10—about his concussion.”

The Rams are back in Los Angeles, and it’s become a good story about football’s glorious return to a city it should have never left. But when I saw Williams, it brought me back to the past—that ugly past.

“He [Michel Crabtree] becomes human when we f–kin’ take out that outside ACL.”

Seeing Williams again made me wonder just how much football has changed. I think it’s changed a great deal since Williams made that infamous speech over four years ago. Coaches don’t really speak that way anymore. Players are far more educated about what football does to the body.

Most players wouldn’t accept that kind of language from a coach. If the league office ever heard about a coach speaking that way now, the coach would likely be disciplined.

“We need to decide how many times we can beat Frank Gore’s head.”

The game has changed for the better. It still has a slew of issues, not the least being that the actual, every-down movements of football may cause CTE. Now, however, at least we don’t have that sort of rhetoric and bounty mandates from coaches. At least, I don’t think we do.

It’s true Williams deserves forgiveness.

But we still shouldn’t forget.

    

2. Not buying it

The Super Bowl 50 Host Committee recently asked a company called Sportsimpacts to evaluate how much money was brought into the Bay Area following the game between Carolina and Denver.

A press release from the host committee sent to media (including me) this week stated that Super Bowl 50 brought $240 million into the Bay Area economy.

That is…doubtful.

I would go so far as to say there’s no way in hell that’s true.

Super Bowls simply do not bring in gobs of revenue, and often, they bring in very little. Also, many of the studies touting economic boon from a Super Bowl are often flawed and inaccurate, as Edwin Rios reported in Mother Jones.

Every year, there is a study like this, and every year, the study seems misleading.

    

3. NFL needs to release PSI numbers

Ben Volin of the Boston Globe had an interesting note regarding random PSI testing of footballs. The league instituted the measure after the notorious and uber-flawed Deflategate investigation. Or, as Patriots fans call it, The Greatest Conspiracy in the History of Humankind—Even Worse Than UFO Coverups and the Fake Moon Landing.

NFL referee Ron Torbert was in New England last week to officiate practices. Then, afterward, in speaking to the press, Torbert demonstrated an unusual amount of frankness when asked about the random …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com