The montage of violent hits in NFL games Sunday -- including one that put Ravens tight end Todd Heap on the bench for a short time -- sent ripples of concern and anxiety across the nation's viewing audience.
Nowhere was the concern more pronounced than at NFL headquarters, though, where league executives Tuesday raised their disciplinary authority to new levels for "flagrant and egregious" hits to the head of defenseless players.
Ray Anderson, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations, said during an interview on ESPN that the league wanted to rid itself of the flagrant helmet-to-helmet hits that have sidelined so many players this season with head trauma.
To do that, Anderson said, the league will enforce discipline at a "higher level" -- meaning suspension -- for violations of the rule banning hits to the head and neck areas (Rule 12, Section II, Article 8). The rule will not be changed, but it will be more strictly applied to violent hits.
"What we are doing," Anderson said on "Mike and Mike in the Morning," "is we are trying to get our players to not initiate contact on defenseless players -- including defenseless receivers -- to the head or neck area with the forearm, the shoulder or the helmet. We're trying to get that out of the game."
While news of the NFL response to Sunday's violent events was generally applauded, some experts saw a larger, more ominous trend.
Dr. Julian E. Bailes, professor and chairman of the department of neurological surgery at West Virginia University's School of Medicine, was taken aback by the number of vicious hits Sunday.
"To me, it's disappointing that with all the research, the education and the efforts at prevention that so many -- including the NFL -- have done, that we continue to see these sort of hits," Bailes said. "I think there was a collective gasp by NFL fans on Sunday, not of dirty play, but of the velocities of hits in a legal play."
Despite that threat of suspension, Anderson levied only fines later Tuesday against three players guilty of player-safety rules.
He fined New England Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather $50,000 for "unnecessarily" striking Heap with a helmet-to-helmet shot in the second quarter, and for another unnecessary hit in the third quarter to the head and neck of an unidentified player.
Atlanta Falcons cornerback Dunta Robinson drew the same $50,000 fine for striking Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson in the neck area, a hit that took both players off the field with concussions.
But the biggest fine went to linebacker James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Harrison must pay $75,000 -- as a repeat offender -- for hitting Cleveland Browns receiver Mohamed Massaquoi in the head and neck area in the second quarter. Harrison was not fined, however, for his helmet-to-helmet hit that knocked wide receiver Joshua Cribbs out with a concussion. That play, by NFL rules, was legal.
Asked by ESPN whether any shot to the head was considered illegal and finable, Anderson drew the line at ball carriers.
"Not all of them, no," he said. "For instance, the rules define that a runner in possession is not considered a defenseless player, so there are going to be some helmet-to-helmet or shoulder pad-to-head contact in that situation."
Anderson gave examples of players who would be considered defenseless, among them a receiver in the act of trying to catch a pass. He also said a punt or kick returner could be, and that "a defensive player coming back after a change of possession who gets blindsided in the head or neck area by a receiver coming back to the line of scrimmage is a defenseless player …"
Bailes watched a replay of Meriweather launching himself to land a head shot on Heap and called it "the best example of a pure helmet-on-helmet hit." But he found it incongruous that Harrison's hit on Cribbs was not a violation of the rules.
"Maybe we need to revisit what's legal," he said.
"I don't think you can stop there and say it's only the exact helmet-to-helmet hit [that is a violation]. I think they have to come to grips with the fact you can get hit in other ways that can cause rapid acceleration and rapid deceleration to the brain. That's why I've been saying 'Take the head out of the game.' … That's something they need to take up after the season, probably."
Kevin Guskiewicz thinks the threat of suspension will serve as a deterrent for players who typically lead with their helmets. Guskiewicz is the director of the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes at the University of North Carolina. Bailes is the medical director for the center.
