# Donovin Darius, I wish injury upon you. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 20, 2004, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donovin-darius-i-wish-injury-upon-you/280711 "2004-12-20T00:32:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donovin-darius-i-wish-injury-upon-you/280711/41 "2004-12-22T00:27:03Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > If Darius had been a foot to the left and caught the receiver with his shoulder pad beneath the chin the result would have been basically about the same. It would have been called a great hit. > > Why is using your arm to do the same thing wrong? Because of the size of both body parts. Have you ever worn a set of shoulder pads? Or at least someone wearing them up close? Much more bulk to get to the neck than the lower arm. For the shoulder pad to get to the neck, the DB would have to be wearing very thin pads, and the WR would need a facemask of almost kicker proportions. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donovin-darius-i-wish-injury-upon-you/280711/42 "2004-12-22T00:33:43Z")
It could still be bad, **Duff**. Planting my shoulder pads into your facemask would result in your head snapping back. Add to that our size and the speed of the play, and I daresay you might be hurt. (Why yes, personal experience) Not picking at you, just using the two of us an example of the probabilities. At a high school level, I was taught how to aim my tackles for maximum hurt for the sole purpose of creating an aura of menace around me. (Line backer and special teams) ((yeah, our coaches were jerks for that, so were we for listening)) ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donovin-darius-i-wish-injury-upon-you/280711/43 "2004-12-22T00:39:40Z")
Fear is very much a part of football. **Yo…you see what I did to him?? I’m gonna do that to you too!** It always has been…always will be. Unless of course the NFL goes to tag or flag football. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donovin-darius-i-wish-injury-upon-you/280711/44 "2004-12-22T00:46:10Z")
Sure, **Reeder** , but it can go too far, imho. Case in point, the other players in general, even on our own team, were wary of us Roving Menaces. Not only did we have no regard for anyone’s personal safety (not even our own), we were hyped up on speed for the games and sometimes used steroids in our workouts (provided by the coaching staff, both roids and speed). They finally got busted a couple of years after my graduating, but the fact remains that they groomed us as agents of violence on the football feild. I look back now and shiver wither rage as I cringe in shame. Get rid of the potential for life altering injuries is my current mantra. As much as is possible, anyways. (No, I never changed anyone’s life with a tackle, but I do remember the horrid feeling of thinking I may have.) As usual, ymmv, imho, e plurabis unim, etc… ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donovin-darius-i-wish-injury-upon-you/280711/45 "2004-12-22T00:53:03Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > Unless of course the NFL goes to tag or flag football. I broke a friend’s collar bone playing flag football one clear Saturday afternoon. He likes to remind me of that at the oddest of times. Still, there’s a certain dichotomy to my watching NFL football. While I love to the good, hard hits and the mind blowing plays, I shrink back and get very quiet whenever there is a serious injury on the field. How do we come to a happy medium of good and hard yet relatively safe football? I don’t know. I’m just stating my experience, opinion, and feelings. I’ll let the specialists take care of that. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donovin-darius-i-wish-injury-upon-you/280711/46 "2004-12-22T00:53:29Z")
> [@Enginerd](#): > > I think my dad’s solution for illegal plays that result in injuries is ideal. If you injure somebody and get flagged in the process, then you don’t play again (or get paid) until he does. If it’s a career ending injury, it ends two careers. Somehow, I don’t think that ones getting past the union, but I do think it would work. I think this would be ideal, if there was some way of guaranteeing that an injured player wasn’t faking the damage to keep a star off the field. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donovin-darius-i-wish-injury-upon-you/280711/47 "2004-12-22T03:34:52Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I think this would be ideal, if there was some way of guaranteeing that an injured player wasn’t faking the damage to keep a star off the field. This would be so unlikely as to hardly be a factor into a punishment of this nature. It would be easy to diagnose and prove all but a very few injuries that could be exploited. And I love that idea as well. As long as it can be proven under criminal law that the injury was deliberate. If juries can give a guy 5 years for aggravated assault that lands a guy in the hospital for a few days, why not some similar punishment to a colleague that ends another’s entire carreer? (Has anyone noticed my Pits seems to either become train wrecks or deep debates? I need a better filter) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donovin-darius-i-wish-injury-upon-you/280711/48 "2004-12-22T11:05:21Z")
i think yesterday i mentioned how part of why he may have done it was to get his hit on SportsCenter, MNF… Today, logging on to [msn.com](http://msn.com) to read my hotmail I see this: They have all these little stories to get your attention, and there’s one entitled “Who is the NFL’s hardest hitter”. Guess who is #7??? [http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3244150?GT1=5826](http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3244150?GT1=5826) ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donovin-darius-i-wish-injury-upon-you/280711/49 "2004-12-23T09:08:21Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > why was his arm so high and extended as to get Fergie’s neck in the crook of his elbow? Because the receiver caught the ball in the air. At the moment the guy caught the ball, Darius’ arm was at the level of the ball. Less than a second later, both the receiver’s feet hit the ground, and the defender’s arm made contact, only now instead of being in line with the ball, it was in line with the neck. It’s sort of like (but not nearly as defensible as) the situation when a guy with the ball lowers his head, and you can’t hit the guy in the head. If the defender was originally going for the torso, but all of a sudden the head is lowered and in the way, what is the defender supposed to do? The NFL seems to feel the defender should let up the TD, because offense sells tickets. As a fan of defensive football, this attitude makes me want to puke. Last year’s Colts / Chiefs playoff game was the worst game of football I’ve ever seen in my entire life, while 6-3 battles for field position I find to be endlessly entertaining. I recognize that I’m in the minority on this one. Still, even if Darius is given every benefit of the doubt I can manufacture, he was reckless and warranted the steep fine. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donovin-darius-i-wish-injury-upon-you/280711/50 "2004-12-23T16:16:41Z")
In rugby the stiff-arm tackle across the neck (I assume that’s a clothesline) is a serious offence and will generally get you both sent off and then banned. It can break a neck. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donovin-darius-i-wish-injury-upon-you/280711/51 "2004-12-24T08:42:23Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > Me neither. Some WRS just have serious stones, I guess. Remember that leaping Eddie McAffrey catch three or so years ago when he just got _hammered_ in mid-air? You could actually see his leg breaking before it hit the ground, but he made the catch (his last that season.) [tangent]I for one will never forget that. Mr. Rilch and BIL insisted I come downstairs to watch the replay over and over and over again. BIL said, “That’s probably the most gruesome thing we’ll see on TV all year.” **Mr. Cynical** said in an MPSIMS thread, “Ed McAffrey, you’re the toughest man alive tonight.” The date? September 10, 2001.[/tangent] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donovin-darius-i-wish-injury-upon-you/280711.md?page=2)