Opinion: Isn’t All Of Football Unnecessary Roughness?

Mark Smithicks, superfan here, and I’ve been thinking. Thinking long and hard. Here are some thoughts that I’ve thought. I think you’ve thought what I’ve thought:

We as a society take for granted that being flagged for unnecessary roughness during an NFL game will cost your team 15 yards. As it should, right? Grabbing someone by the face mask or hitting them after the whistle is wrong and deserves to be punished. Perhaps. But maybe, just maybe, hitting someone before the whistle is unnecessary too?

I know I might sound crazy right now, but what is it about football that makes any sort of roughness necessary? Why does putting on a colorful jersey and running around on a nice, manicured lawn mean you’re justified in assaulting your opponent? Sure, one could argue that football has always been that way, but football was invented in 1869 by a generation who only eight years prior had realized it was wrong to own human beings.

Vince Lombardi once said, “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” But did Vince ever consider that you wouldn’t have to get back up if it were illegal to knock you down in the first place? Maybe not, but he was also born before women had the right to vote, so maybe we shouldn’t be asking his opinion in the first place?

Sign my petition to remove all roughness from the NFL, and then, the world, well except where it really is necessary. I mean, I get it, there are some places where roughness is necessary, like with a consenting partner in the bedroom or while fighting to be the first one off the plane.