Coaching? Recruitment? Execution? Preparedness?

[Blueforlife]

Protecting players from injuries and ensuring their health can protected is critical to any league.  Head shots are a crtical part of the game to eliminate as much as possible and using the helmet as a weapon doesn't reflect on the current reality of the game.  Tackle football will always be violent, fast and unpredictable making head injuries inevitable but taking steps to find ways to reduce these occurrences needs to he continue to be explored.  Making good progress on a very difficult thing to manage.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Protecting players from injuries and ensuring their health can protected is critical to any league.  Head shots are a crtical part of the game to eliminate as much as possible and using the helmet as a weapon doesn't reflect on the current reality of the game.  Tackle football will always be violent, fast and unpredictable making head injuries inevitable but taking steps to find ways to reduce these occurrences needs to he continue to be explored.  Making good progress on a very difficult thing to manage.

You must be a bureaucrat, nobody else could come up with a meaningless passage like that. 

[TecnoGenius]

Just watched the hit again, it's as blatant a hit to the head on a defenseless player as it gets, and if you don't see it it's because you don't want to. The fact there was a melee afterwards tells me his teammates definitely thought it was and guaranteed the league office fines him, which tells me the refs missed one. We ll see Wednesday

I did my computer magic on that play and there was no H2H on the Acklin hit.  If you don't have the correct setup and just the cheeseball Shaw PVR (useless "cloud" stuff now) you won't be able to discern this.

It was a clean hit and there will be no fine.  Remember, command has every opportunity to review these things without any intervention/challenge.  They definitely looked at it and didn't feel the need to flag it.

If you want to outlaw clean hits just because they are hellacious, you can argue that point.  It's a valid argument, and everyone is allowed their opinion.

Personally I think we've wussified football too much already.  I like the level of physicality we allowed right when Loffler first signed.  It was around that time the league started outlawing everything "big", and I complained every time it cost our team 15 or 25.

But I can accept what the league has done, as I don't like to see unconscious and convulsing Rs, especially when they are so highly paid and there's not that many who have true talent.

Any changes to the status quo will probably wait for the off-season, and even then I'm not sure how much more the league wants to "bubblewrap" players and take away what a ton of fans come for: the big hits.  It's kind of like motorsport "fans" who only watch for the massive crashes.  It's human nature.

[Blueforlife]

You must be a bureaucrat, nobody else could come up with a meaningless passage like that. 

I couldn't recall the play that was being discussed so I couldn't chime in on the play but wanted to give my two cents on the issue in general.  One's opinion on here isn't meaningless.  If you don't agree with what I accept that.  Your tone isn't appreciated.

[Blue In BC]

Just watched the hit again, it's as blatant a hit to the head on a defenseless player as it gets, and if you don't see it it's because you don't want to. The fact there was a melee afterwards tells me his teammates definitely thought it was and guaranteed the league office fines him, which tells me the refs missed one. We ll see Wednesday

We see players calling for penalties multiple times during games. Even coaches lose more than 50% of reviews.

The league doesn't need player help for the refs.

You seem to have a bias towards the player, the team or just need something. Start a poll and see what the masses think of the play.

A fine usually comes when a penalty has been called on the play. Not always, but it's done to create a message of things not to have in a game: Late hit, Out of bounds, Tourist hit, abuse of an official, crack back block, low hit on a QB etc.

[Blue In BC]

I did my computer magic on that play and there was no H2H on the Acklin hit.  If you don't have the correct setup and just the cheeseball Shaw PVR (useless "cloud" stuff now) you won't be able to discern this.

It was a clean hit and there will be no fine.  Remember, command has every opportunity to review these things without any intervention/challenge.  They definitely looked at it and didn't feel the need to flag it.

If you want to outlaw clean hits just because they are hellacious, you can argue that point.  It's a valid argument, and everyone is allowed their opinion.

Personally I think we've wussified football too much already.  I like the level of physicality we allowed right when Loffler first signed.  It was around that time the league started outlawing everything "big", and I complained every time it cost our team 15 or 25.

But I can accept what the league has done, as I don't like to see unconscious and convulsing Rs, especially when they are so highly paid and there's not that many who have true talent.

Any changes to the status quo will probably wait for the off-season, and even then I'm not sure how much more the league wants to "bubblewrap" players and take away what a ton of fans come for: the big hits.  It's kind of like motorsport "fans" who only watch for the massive crashes.  It's human nature.

Are you able to post some freeze frame shots at moment of contact that we could look at?

[TecnoGenius]

Are you able to post some freeze frame shots at moment of contact that we could look at?

Homework, eh?  Ok.

The key is that Acklin's helmet doesn't move a single inch until Sankey's shoulder gets in there to hit Acklin's shoulder.  If Acklin took a head shot his helmet would move earlier.  If Sankey's helmet was first contact Acklin's shoulder would have moved earlier.  If it was H2H then image 3 would show helmets moving, and they don't.  Lastly, when the two connect Acklin's head angles into his body like he's getting a shoulder whack, not out away from his body like a H2H would cause.

This looks like a perfect form shoulder to shoulder hit to me.  If you want to see the images in full effect, save all 5 to your disk and load in an image loader that lets you cycle through them quickly in one window so you can see the motion.  They it's even more obvious.

[TecnoGenius]

It really has become an unfair contest, I would like to see them eliminate the hits designed to knock the ball lose, nothing wrong with hitting or punching the ball or proper form tackling but trying to knock the receiver unconscious or intimidate them in hopes of dropping the ball is taking too many talented receivers out of the game. 

Oh yah, anyone that shouts "that's just football" is a moron.

But it always has (forever) been "football".  Go watch some of those 80's GC replays CFL had up on youtube.  The game has already been made way more feathers & rainbows since then.  Maybe the key is they should bring back those huge shoulder pads!   

If you want to eliminate said "knock the ball out" hits, you can argue that point.  But don't think it won't fundamentally change the game.  If you do that then in any situation where you are uphill-with-speed vs downhill-with-speed it'll be nearly impossible to effect a "clean" hit.  What do you do, stop and then turn and chase?

[Blue In BC]

Homework, eh?  Ok.

The key is that Acklin's helmet doesn't move a single inch until Sankey's shoulder gets in there to hit Acklin's shoulder.  If Acklin took a head shot his helmet would move earlier.  If Sankey's helmet was first contact Acklin's shoulder would have moved earlier.  If it was H2H then image 3 would show helmets moving, and they don't.  Lastly, when the two connect Acklin's head angles into his body like he's getting a shoulder whack, not out away from his body like a H2H would cause.

This looks like a perfect form shoulder to shoulder hit to me.  If you want to see the images in full effect, save all 5 to your disk and load in an image loader that lets you cycle through them quickly in one window so you can see the motion.  They it's even more obvious.

Good work, thanks for the effort. I wonder what DD will say to this? I'd call it form tackle. Shoulder to shoulder. 

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

But it always has (forever) been "football".  Go watch some of those 80's GC replays CFL had up on youtube.  The game has already been made way more feathers & rainbows since then.  Maybe the key is they should bring back those huge shoulder pads!   

If you want to eliminate said "knock the ball out" hits, you can argue that point.  But don't think it won't fundamentally change the game.  If you do that then in any situation where you are uphill-with-speed vs downhill-with-speed it'll be nearly impossible to effect a "clean" hit.  What do you do, stop and then turn and chase?

The game has fundamentally changed, each decade players have gotten bigger, faster and stronger, just like in hockey.  They no longer wear leather helmets but maybe they should, or wear no helmets at all as in rugby, as the equipment is designed and is used as a weapon.  Maybe they should put the hard surface on the inside and the padded protection on the outside, that might force them to tackle properly.

Point is highly skilled players are being taken out of the game by gorillas who's only skill is smashing, just like hockey.  They are not the players that make the game exciting or fans pay to come see.

[Stretch]

Good work, thanks for the effort. I wonder what DD will say to this? I'd call it form tackle. Shoulder to shoulder. 

To me it looks like shoulder to head.

[dd]

But it always has (forever) been "football".  Go watch some of those 80's GC replays CFL had up on youtube.  The game has already been made way more feathers & rainbows since then.  Maybe the key is they should bring back those huge shoulder pads!   

If you want to eliminate said "knock the ball out" hits, you can argue that point.  But don't think it won't fundamentally change the game.  If you do that then in any situation where you are uphill-with-speed vs downhill-with-speed it'll be nearly impossible to effect a "clean" hit.  What do you do, stop and then turn and chase?

What relevance does games in the 80s have with present day sport?? Let's watch reruns of probert fights and say that's the way hockey should be played. Ridiculous reference

People will try and justify why a player lay motionless on the field after the hit call they want. If it was shoulder to shoulder there would be no one laying on the ground. The fact that acklin got up and was upset pointing at his Adam's apple and his teammates causing a melee tells me it was a shoulder to the head hit. Players know when someone crosses the line.

We are just becoming aware of the impacts of concussions to long term health of players, and when it comes to safety, error on the safe side. There's no place in the game for a hit like that, and I don't care what your feeble justification is as there is no justification for that

[Blue In BC]

To me it looks like shoulder to head.

You can see Acklin's head moving forward in the 4th picture. If the shoulder hit his head, that wouldn't happen. Forward momentum would take Acklin's throat bouncing off a shoulder pad, possibly.

[ichabod_crane]

I did play tackle football in high school. I also played tackle football ( weekend pickup ) in the winter with no equipment. At the time I never weighed more than 160 lbs. Some players weighed as much as 250 and some were current or recently retired pro football players.

Maybe you remember ex Bomber and Lion Dan Hucklak. He was a 230 - 240 FB and was still a current player when I played against him during his off season. Also tackled Rick Klassen with no equipment.

Danny BOY! Yes, he played in the latter Brock years I believe and into the Tommy Clements era. Won a cup with the Bombers in 1984 to end the first BIG drought for the Bombers (22 years).

Also remember Rick Klassen mainly playing for the BC Lions in the 1980's. I will only a teenager when those guys played for the Bombers until late 1985 when I turned 20.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

You can see Acklin's head moving forward in the 4th picture. If the shoulder hit his head, that wouldn't happen. Forward momentum would take Acklin's throat bouncing off a shoulder pad, possibly.

Ever heard of whiplash???  His head is definitely moving frame to frame.  Those photos don't tell us very much, we'll have to wait to see if the league thinks he deserves extra punishment.