NFL Asking Teams to Stop Certain Drills (like the Oklahoma)

[fredtoast]

First of all I am generally more in favor of safety moves than many people here. I don't see it as making the game "softer". I just see it as acknowledgement that players are so much bigger and faster that they are going to be doing more damage to each other.

For example, I can understand doing something about the kick off where the entire teams are sprinting full speed at each other. But the Oklahoma drill is really not that bad. It is a line of scrimmage collision. And it is not high volume because each player only does it 2 or 3 times.

The only problem I could see with the Oklahoma drill was that it was often one of the very first drills they do in pads, or at least on the first day in pads. It might be better to have players work up slower to full-on snot-knocking. But even with all the new rules about contact football is ultra violent. At its core it is a about hitting. Each play is a full contact battle to the ground. You have to be able to hit in practice to prepare for games.

BTW when I played high school football we did not see pads from the end of the season until fall practice. The first day of hitting in pads felt wonderful.