NFL Players: Goodell, There's Only One Way To Get Us On Board With Your Rule Changes

This week, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expressed his interest in taking kickoffs out of football.By doing so, he extracts the most dangerous play in the game, where full-speed collisions render concussions expected and commonplace.While there are those for and against it, the players overwhelmingly dislike the idea, with the mindset, “Don’t change the game we love.”This discussion comes both during a sensitive time when parents are questioning football’s safety and a year after Goodell moved the kickoff up five yards to induce more touchbacks.But football is a violent sport played by violent people who don’t stress the long term risks the sport proposes. From a players’ perspective, Goodell is easy to gang up on because he never played the game.“He doesn’t know how we feel.”That’s where you hit your roadblock.In order to get on board with a serious change to the game, the players need anecdotal evidence from former, prominent players of the tangible dangers of football.Players li...