Richard Sherman Heroically Leads the Fight Against the Stupid Helmet Rule

If you gave me a writing assignment five years ago and asked me to come up with sentences I’d never be typing, somewhere between “Donald Trump is President of the United States” and “Aaron Hernandez is a straight up murderer” would’ve been “Richard Sherman is the voice of reason.” And yet you cannot argue that all three are objectively true.

Obviously Sherman is not a neutral party in this. He’s a big, rangy, physical corner who might not be the punisher Brandon Browner was, but big hits were the stock and trade of the defense they won a ring with in Seattle. And that he’s hoping to in San Francisco. So it only makes sense that he’d be as pissed off by the cluster the Rules Committee has created here as any man alive. There’s an old adage in war that says countries never negotiate when they have an advantage. You don’t talk about laying down your weapons when you’ve got more weapons than everybody else.

But this is more than just a three-time All Pro bitching about some reasonable rule like the Defenseless Receiver or the ones saying you can’t hit a quarterback’s head or dive at his knee. There’s never been a defender who didn’t argue at some point safety rules all benefit the offense and make it impossible for him to do his job. But on this one, Richard is 100 percent, spot on, bullseye accurate. There’s simply no counter argument to be made.

The Helmet Rule is vague and weirdly worded and any reasonable interpretation of it defies all logic. Not to mention, human physiology. In a nutshell they’re telling defenders to tackle only with their shoulders and not their heads. Which is a cute trick, since those parts are attached. At the very least, they go together, based on what I’ve read in the bottles in my shower.

It’s like a few years ago when there was a rash of old people stepping on their accelerators instead of the brake and slamming into Waffle Houses or wherever. So the government studied it and ruled not that we should get these old bag menaces off the roads, but that maybe the brake should be further away from the gas pedal. Great idea. I vote we stick it in the trunk. That’s what pro football has done with this traveshamockery of a rule.

And the more we see it applied, the more I’m convinced it has nothing to do with making the game safer. It’s all about giving the NFL cover to say “See? We’re making the game safer. To the point we’re even ruining the product. We’re making it so safe it’s unwatchable!” Just to call off the dogs that keep threatening to sue them. Because in that asymmetrical warfare of CTE lawsuits, it’s the league that’s weak and needs to sue for peace.

Hopefully Richard Sherman will keep up the attacks and win this war.  Or we’ll have seen the last of this: