A nasty brawl occurred during an NFL game. What does this tell us about violence and player safety in the NFL?
It was a pretty typical matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns for the first 59 minutes during their game on November 14. The two rivals had played to a 21-7 Browns lead and the steelers possessed the ball deep in their own territory and just 1 or 2 more plays could have ended the game. With 14 seconds left, Quarterback Mason Rudolph dumped a pass to Trey Edmunds who advanced the ball 11 yards as he was pushed out of bounds. But back at the line of scrimmage, Rudolph was sacked awkwardly by Browns Defensive End Myles Garrett which caused him to act. Several seconds later, after Garrett forced Rudolph’s helmet off of him and in the process slam the helmet against Rudolph’s head, many players stormed to the scene to either act or diffuse the situation. In all, 3 players were suspended and both teams were fined $250,000.
As we look back to the latest NFL season, this game, out of plenty others is one the league wants the viewer to forget. But in the wake of a new fear for life-altering injuries and a new commissioner in Roger Goodell, games like this have actually gone up in the past few years. This is because public opinion on the sport has shifted to a more violent nature, which has caused multiple rule changes in favor of protecting the players and a tougher punishment when not followed. In the years past there were little to no punishments for unacceptable on-field behavior. For example, a sack in 1985 that ended Quarterback Joe Theismann’s career occurred but no suspensions or fines resulted from that. Also, before the wake of public concern for the sport, equipment used to have much less protection and helmets were very loosely sanctioned by the league, unlike today’s NFL.
In the first 60 years of the NFL, there was not a single suspension that resulted from On-Field behavior, but in the last 10 years that number rose to 21. Of course, there has been violence in the NFL since it started in 1920, but the new era of worries by people has ushered in a tougher league headed by commissioner Roger Goodell. Goodell has spearheaded a campaign to toughen up the rules when it comes to on-field behavior, and it shows. According to the graph below, there has been a skyrocket in suspensions due to on-field behavior and in total, there have been 21 suspensions this decade. He became commissioner in 2006.
Goodell has also changed the NFL’s policies on lengths of suspensions. In the past 12 years of his tenure, Goodell has implemented a policy to make longer suspensions and heftier fines for athletes who break the rules. For example, the chart below shows the longest suspensions based on on-field behavior; every suspension represented on the list occurred during Goodell’s 13 year tenure as commissioner.
Longest Bans in NFL for on-field behavior
YEAR
PLAYER
GAMES
2019
12
2006
5
2017
5*
2015
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3
2013
3
*Later shortened to 3 games
As an outsider, the statistics may lead you to believe that there has been a noticeable trend in violence and career-altering injuries and suspensions, that is actually not the case. In a combination of increased toughness to the rules, more public concern, and a new commissioner it seems that behavior has been worse and in turn, injuries have gone up while in actuality, the amount of suspendable hits, other injuries, and concussions have generally remained steady.