Beyda: Helmet-to-helmet hits warrant ejections, not just penalties

Nov. 11, 2011, 1:44 a.m.

If you’ve been following NFL football for a long time, the last few years have probably been a real eye-opener when it comes to the dangers of helmet-to-helmet hits.

If you’ve been following Stanford football for a long time, that eye-opener came 11 years ago.

And as a seven-year-old watching just his third season of Cardinal football and still hyped up over that exciting (albeit unsuccessful) trip to Pasadena just months before, I had no idea that on Oct. 28, 2000, I would watch someone’s life shortened first-hand.

I can’t say that I remember the helmet-to-helmet hit that left Washington senior strong safety and NFL prospect Curtis Williams paralyzed and led to his death just two years later. I can’t say I remember the rest of the game, which Stanford lost in dramatic fashion. From that day, my only lasting memory is the ambulance that raced onto the field and carted Williams away after nearly 15 minutes on the turf.

So when another ambulance raced onto the field last Saturday — this time to take off senior Cardinal wide receiver Chris Owusu, who had just been knocked out of a game by a hit to the head for the third time this season — let’s just say I had a few flashbacks.

It’s all too easy to say that Owusu dipped his head at the last second, that there was nothing junior cornerback Jordan Poyer could’ve done, that there shouldn’t have been a penalty call, that Oregon State was robbed of a touchdown on the ensuing fumble. Beaver head coach Mike Riley felt that way. Fans in Reser Stadium felt that way.

That makes just as much sense as rear-ending someone, checking to make sure they’re all right and upon noticing that their neck is broken, asking them, “Can we exchange insurance cards?”

But I’m not here to cry over spilt milk. Whether you found the penalty call or the fans’ ensuing boos more controversial as Owusu was lying on the field, we need to reconsider how we penalize helmet-to-helmet hits.

I don’t care what Poyer was thinking, whether he was aiming high or what he could’ve done to prevent the concussion. Hits like that shouldn’t just draw flags; they should require ejections. Yes, even when the guilty party is just trying to make a clean tackle.

It sounds like heresy, but bear with me for a second. Before team sports became a professional affair, we had pick-up games, which went by the same mantra: If a player gets a scrape, or breaks his glasses or…anything, really, then someone on the other team has to sit out, no matter how it happened. Fast-forward to the modern-day college football roster, which can list a hundred players and still travel three-deep for road games. In this setting, an eye for an eye really does not make the whole world blind.

The same thinking should apply regardless of intent, like in hockey, where high-sticking penalties are almost always a result of carelessness but are called nonetheless. The NHL is a step ahead of both college and pro football because it recognizes that, at the end of the day, losing a tooth — or an eye, for that matter — just plain sucks, whether it was intentional or not. (And yes, I really amwriting about hockey for the second straight week. Must be a Daily record.)

Defensive coordinators and players alike will argue that they’ve been taught to tackle aggressively and that significant punishments will scare defenders out of making big plays. But does that really matter, when defenders on both sidelines will have to pull up from that earthshattering hit? Worst case scenario, teams will average a touchdown or two more per game. It wouldn’t be the first time that college sports became higher-scoring, and I’m not sure that change in that direction would be for the worse; before there was a shot-clock or a three-point arc, basketball could bore you to tears.

Simply put, it’s time to take helmet-to-helmet hits seriously. It’s not as radical as it sounds. If an offensive playmaker goes down, a defensive playmaker should have to leave with him. In the grand scheme of things, if it can help reduce dangerous injuries, then sitting out a game isn’t that big a deal.

Curtis Williams had to sit out a lifetime.

Joseph Beyda has never experienced a helmet-to-helmet collision, but it’s on his to-do list. If you’d like to suggest how he can safely navigate the feeling of impact at -16 G’s, send him an email at [email protected].

 

Joseph Beyda is the editor in chief of The Stanford Daily. Previously he has worked as the executive editor, webmaster, football editor, a sports desk editor, the paper's summer managing editor and a beat reporter for football, baseball and women's soccer. He co-authored The Daily's recent football book, "Rags to Roses," and covered the soccer team's national title run for the New York Times. Joseph is a senior from Cupertino, Calif. majoring in Electrical Engineering. To contact him, please email jbeyda "at" stanford.edu.

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