Don’t blame Reggie Nelson for the injury to Le’Veon Bell.
Though it would be easy to do, and when you look at the low hit on arguably the best running back in the NFL, it gets even easier. After all, the third quarter hit to Bell’s knee by the Bengals safety left Bell limping off the field with a hyperextension, and the injury has Bell’s status for the Steelers playoff contest against the Baltimore Ravens very much in doubt.
Beyond the fact that Bell has been dominant in 2014, and is even garnering consideration for league MVP, losing Bell in a rubber match against their most hated rival, with so much on the line, makes the hit by Nelson all the more difficult to swallow.
All that being said, don’t blame Nelson. In fact, for all the media hype related to Mike Tomlin’s very public post-game back and forth with Nelson, even Tomlin himself called the play a “legal hit.”
Unfortunately in Roger Goddell’s NFL, plays like the one that will likely keep the Steelers most versatile offensive weapon from playing Saturday night happen way too often.
And you can thank the Goodell and the NFL for that.
That is where the blame truly lies. Players now almost feel they have no choice but to hit players low, and that is proven to be costly. Tight end Heath Miller was injured on a similar play against the Bengals in 2012, and the ACL tear he received led to nine months of grueling rehab. In 2013, a low hit by T.J. Ward on the Patriots Rob Gronkowski also led to an ACL tear, leading the All-Pro tight end to say what a lot of other players are certainly thinking; “‘I’d rather have a concussion than an ACL tear.”
That’s the uncomfortable truth. The NFL, led by Goodell, has made it clear that concussions are the biggest threat to the league. Unless you have been living under a rock, you understand that CTE and the numerous lawsuits filed by former players and their families has put the topic of player safety related to concussions at the forefront.
Don’t kid yourself though, this is more about money than it is about safety, and in 2013, the NFL wrote a $765 million check to hammer that point home.
Though the concussion settlement helped with public relations, it’s done very little to improve player safety, or the quality of the product on the field.
For players like Nelson, trying to determine what is legal and what is not is confusing and fluid. Referees, who clearly have been given a directive to make calls involving high hits to the head and neck area, are in just as much of a no-win situation as the defenders who have to try and think about what is legal all while playing a game where things happen in the blink of an eye.
Now plays that most fans consider clean, are often called penalties because they “look” bad or especially violent. A perfect example of this was the penalty call on Jason Worilds for what many would call a “textbook” hit on Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan. If that is a penalty, what are players supposed to do?
I’ll tell you what they are doing, they are doing exactly what Reggie Nelson did last night. They are covering their tracks, so they do not get called to the league offices to hear that they will have to pay hefty fines, or even face suspension.
So now the Steelers will more than likely be without one of the best players in the league for their most important game of the season in no small part because players are afraid to even consider hitting players high in today’s NFL.
Though it would be easy to place the blame squarely on Nelson’s shoulders, you really need to look no further than Goodell and a league that has encouraged dangerous hits in the name of safety.
It’s a shame Bell and the Steelers have to pay the price for it.
