Two factors make this an exceptionally silly statement.
First, you don’t seek helmet to helmet contact with your hands up in front of you. That’s why it’s called " leading with your helmet or head."
Secondly, if he was “seeking” helmet to helmet contact, why didn’t he get it? He had plenty of time to line massaquoi up, and the guy was basically a deer in the headlights when he turned around. Are you suggesting that mean old Harrison changed his mind halfway through?
When you make arguments like this is when you reveal how little you actually know and understand about football. I’ll grant that you dress your homeric comments up well much of the time, however.
He did make helmet to helmet contact. Why do you think Massaqoui got a concussion? Watch the video more closely - he leads with his helmet, hits with his helmet, and then raises his arms to make an impact with his upper body too.
Really? What advanced, subtle football knowledge is required for me to see that the first point of contact between two players is their helmets? Do I need coaching experience to figure this one out or what?
If it’s just me being a homer, why does that blog entry I linked to exist? Why do several other football blog and news sites make reference to it? Why did the NBC sunday night crew comment that Harrison should be suspended for that headhunting? Aren’t you the “James Harrison gets held on every single play” guy? Really, I’m the homer here?
Do you think that concussions only come from helmet to helmet hits? You must, in order to make a statement like this. FYI, you can get a concussion from many, many types of impact that involve no helmets at all. As long as your head experiences a sudden deceleration, you can have a concussion.
I have watched it, and it looks like Massoquoi’s head hits Harrison’s shoulder pad. I’m not entirely sure their helmets ever make contact at all.
Apparently it takes a magic eye, because you’re seeing something that I don’t. I think it helps if you had ever played the game to understand what it is to tackle and to lead with your head. I’ll tell you this - if you run into every tackle completely vertical, you’re not going to be playing long.
Please do me a favor and point to where I’ve ever said that Harrison gets held on every play. Do so now, before repeating that bullshit. Fact is, I never did, any more than you claimed the Steelers never ever get penalized. Do you want to be the “Steelers never get penalized” guy? Cause we can go that way if you like.
Oh no! James Harrison said something that is common knowledge, that people in the NFL play a violent game! What, players try to hurt each other? This is news? Jack Tatum, Conrad Dobler, Jack Lambert, etc., ad infinitum, everybody who has ever played football, are shocked, SHOCKED I tell you!
But you’re right, I guess it’s time for me to start hating the Steelers, because everybody hates the team they’ve rooted for their entire lives when the players do things that do not draw so much as a penalty flag.
I’m beginning to think that the hits Chris Henry took have transferred to you. Try to avoid getting into a fight with your SO, and whatever you do don’t jump on the back of any trucks. Just looking out for your well-being, dontchaknow.
Given that I’m a Steeler fan, I’m going to assume you’re calling me all these names.
Read the article you linked to again. Harrison is making an important distinction. He clearly says he does not want to injure anyone and does not want to jeopardize anyone’s career. However, and keeping that in mind, he does want to hurt them. Is it really news to a Bengals fan that defenders want the other team’s players to feel it when they hit them? To hear footsteps and get alligator arms? Play with controlled aggression? Outphysical? Do you know what those terms mean?
Perhaps this right here has been the problem with the Bengals and why they perennially suck. Their defense is trying to be gentle. Awwww. Look at Dhani Jones with that cute kitty! Isn’t that a sweet rainbow and unicorn tattoo that [insert name of another Cincinnati defender here, because I’m having a hard time recalling anyone noteworthy] has on his hip?
I think any team with a fan base this whiny and wimpy has to be put out of the AFC North immediately. It’s off to the NFC West for you, and the Browns to follow, given SenorBeef’s latest beef.
I actually tend to advocate for loosening enforcement of stuff like hitting defenseless receivers and such. For instance, the DeSean Jackson hit that happened this week seemed legit to me. What I don’t like is inconsistency - if you are going to call a penalty and fine TJ Ward for a much cleaner hit a few years ago, it’s bullshit not to do the same to Harrison - and also deliberate head to head hits are far more likely to cause brain damage than any other hits, and should specifically be discouraged.
I know Steelers fans aren’t good at recognizing the difference, but there’s a difference between tough and dirty. When Hines Ward jacks a guy in the back of the head 2 seconds after the whistle blows, he’s not being a tough football player.
Er, is violence against women really a subject you want to try to bring up when we’re talking about James Harrison?
I agree with this statement. You’d actually have a point if that had ever happened, let alone if that actually typified his play. Since it hasn’t and doesn’t, you don’t.
Also undermining your effort to make a point here is your compromised nature, as noted above, interpreting the actions and behaviors of Steelers players. Those big bullies!
Hines Ward was voted the dirtiest player in the NFL by the NFL players themselves. So yeah, I’m sure I’m just making that up because I’m a biased Browns fan, but your fandom doesn’t bias your view at all.
Blindside hits after the whistle absolutely typifies his behavior. It’s difficult for me to prove without video evidence because those hits typically don’t make highlight reels, but it happens all the damn time, and the NFL players voting him the dirtiest player supports that.
We’ve been down this road before, about what that poll might or might not tell us. I think any poll that has Troy Polamalu ranked in the top ten most dirty players in the league is pretty damned suspect. Apparently you consider Polamalu the ninth dirtiest player in the league, huh? I’d say your judgment and opinion is essentially worthless at this point.
The more I think about this, the more perfect the fit between the Bengals and the NFC West would be. Kind of like that between Lamarr and the special javelin the guys designed for him in Revenge of the Nerds.
I didn’t say my position exactly reflects the list. You dismissed my claim about Ward’s dirtiness as baseless and just the ravings of a Browns fan, so that runs as counter to evidence against that claim.
Your point may put the question of the accuracy of the survey into question, but you created a pure straw man there, assumed my views, and then dismissed them.
I brought up an actual bit of data from actual NFL players, and you twist that into saying that my judgement and opinion are worthless. You guys crack me up - in all our years in these threads, I’ve never actually said anything that was untrue - and I win pretty much every single argument we have - and not only do you strangely repeatedly bring up points you lost as some sort of triumph, but now my judgement is worthless.
Look up the meaning of the word straw man. It doesn’t mean what you think it means. In this case, you want to present this poll as valid, calling it an “actual bit of data” because it conformed to your belief about Hines Ward. However, the presence in the top ten of a player like Troy Polamalu directly calls into question the validity and utility of the poll. It’s the 13th strike of the clock - meaning that it’s hard to figure out which 12 strikes were the real ones.
So, either the poll is useful or it is not. You have to choose one or the other, based not upon cherry-picking what you would like it to say, but upon what it really says. Which is it?
The straw man was saying that I must think Polamalu is the 9th dirtiest player. The implication is that I hold the position that the survey is absolutely accurate and objective. And then using that made-up position to declare my judgement invalid.
You implied there was nothing to my statements of Hines Ward being a dirty player. So long as the list is not critically flawed and useless, having him be the #1 target of votes certainly does imply that there’s some support for the idea outside of my bias as a Browns fan. The list does not have to be perfect for it to be evidence to suggest that the idea of Ward being a dirty player didn’t originate in my mind.
Okay, maybe you can tell me when it was that Ward jacked someone in the back of the head two seconds after the whistle. I’ll hang up and wait for your reply.
Granted, you can’t hear the whistle because of the music, but the ballcarrier is clearly down and the hit was entirely unnecessary.
Or how about the next hit in that same clip on Ed Reed? Hines clearly uses his helmet to nail Reed right under the facemask.
Dude may not be really really dirty, but some of his shots are totally unnecessary (play was going to be over anyway, ballcarrier was almost out of bounds, etc).
I actually don’t like that hit, because it is gratuitous. That is, it didn’t have any promise of positively affecting that particular play. Maybe it was payback for something prior, or maybe it wasn’t, but I wouldn’t choose that for a highlight reel. We may be able to agree on at least that much.
Unfortunately, we were promised that Hines Ward jacked somebody in the back of the head two seconds after the whistle. Your offering does not even come close on either count. First, only about 1 second of slow mo time elapses between when the runner is down (and you’ll agree with me I hope that when the runner is down and when the whistle sounds are two different things) and when Ward hits Holly, and secondly it is clearly and demonstrably not in the back of the head.
I can only imagine that you even bothered to offer this as evidence for the specific assertion in question here because of my skills as a master baiter.
