In 1936, the German military attache to the U.S was invited to a football game. After the game, he cabled Berlin saying that the Americans play a game so violent that Germany should be very careful before fighting them - And they enjoy it!
Most American boys do this growing up without pads or helmets in fields and parks everywhere. The older we get, the harder we hit and get hit. Its all good clean fun. These guys are just more precise.
. . . and streets, and asphalt playgrounds. Makes a man of you. BTW, broken bones are actually pretty rare; the most common injuries are soft tissue (ligaments, cartilage) sprains and tears.
We called it "Bone Ball". Now that I think about it, we were pretty crazy back in the 80's. Throwing your head into tackles without a helmet. I saw yellow stars a few times. Skateboarding did more damage to my body though.
Yes. The pads and helmet give you the illusion that you are safe. You are not, lol. Grown men with a bunch of muscle hitting each other full force. No joke.
Agreed, the pads do make you feel a little safe. But then you get hit like that it's shows you that you're wrong. When I played, I dished out hits like that and took hits like that, and it hurts.
Yeah, I grew up in Sydney, Rugby League heartland and I love the NFL. Aussies would say to me, "yeah but they wear all those pads" and I'd say, because they have to. NFL is miles more violent than Rugby League.
The biggest, strongest and fastest men in America all play in the NFL. In high school I was a 5'9" 180 lb tailback as a senior and I will never forget running head to head with this huge native American tackle. He was well over 300lb. I dont remember much after that hit. My best friend said I was sitting on my butt scooting and rocking back and forth for like 10 seconds lmfao.
Some of these are the fault of the QB. Also, although known for offense actually the SF 49ers have long tradition of hard hitters on defense. However, they used to hit harder back in the day.
@@allover5622 LOL man I watched my little brother basically do the same thing during practice with a kid he graduated with. He sat my brother right on his ass. He went to play at Oklahoma as a starting linebacker and he got drafted to the Lions. His name is Teddy Lehman. Look up his highlights.
I knew a lot of 5'9" guys that were huge when I was in high school. They where way bigger than 180; they got roided out thinking they would get wrestling scholarships. It was strange watching meatsacks that used to be your friends Hah.
Our coaches used to say “you gotta be a little crazy to play this game” and they were right, we were a little crazy , all of us. But also some of the nicest most genuine dudes off the field that you could ever meet. Football doesn’t just train your body and your mind , a good coaching staff trains you into a good MAN as well. You put 100% into EVERYTHING you do in life , treat others with respect . I played several sports at a high competitive level when I was younger but NOTHING comes close to the brotherhood I feel with my old football teammates and really nowadays anyone that played the game at all. It’s like this crazy fraternity or something lol
I can tell that you are ttuly surprised by this. Many European football ( soccer) and rugby fans think that American football is sort of soft in comparison because they wear padding, helmets, etc, and it is not nonstop action. But American football is incredibly difficult and physically brutal. Even the plays are complicated and require strength, speed, and mental and physical agility. Even with the helmets, many are diagnosed with a deteriorating brain condition from the repeated blows to the head.
You're 100% right, they don't realize the pads and helmets actually helps the players hit harder than they would without helmets and pads. It helps you hit someone more than protection from getting hit .
@@karenjayne24 Yes I heard stories & also believe that about the European & other nations believing the NFL is soft. Rugby is brutal so I don't have a issue with what their fans say about the NFL. It is what it is. I don't recall hearing any backlash from Ex Rugby players talking smack so... On the other hand Soccer players AND Uneducated Fans or is it Hooligans, should keep quiet at ALL TIMES EVERY TIME! I would love to see a soccer player dribbling the ball on a breakaway only to get his butt handed to him by a Football player delivering a text book upper body tackle EVEN without pads & a helmet! Let's see them get up off the field or the stretcher (Really?) then. It's idiotic to even compare the two or 3 sports. STOP the nonsense now. Alright I got it out now any disagreements?
As far as tackling rules are concerned, here's a little history: Back in the 1950s and 60s, pretty much everything was allowed. You could even "clothesline" players while tackling. That is, wind up and throw you whole arm at a ball carrier's neck to take him out. A guy named "Night Train" Lane was famous for doing this and absolutely destroying people. That move got banned. "Spearing" (leading with your head and striking with crown of the helmet) has been illegal for decades, but unless it was blatant and very obvious (like diving head first into someone while they were on the ground) it was rarely called. Now football doesn't allow leading with the head in any circumstances and doing so will draw a flag or even get you ejected. The most controversial rule change at all levels involves penalties for hard hits on "defenseless players" and "targeting." Up until relatively recently, a player could hit an opponent as hard as possible when the player was stretched out trying to catch a pass or not looking or just being vulnerable. This was often done leading with the head, which is now called "targeting" at the college level. This brutal strategy was used to great effect by defensive players to physically intimidate offensive opponents, especially receivers: if you nailed them a few times, they'd lose their courage to try to make plays with their bodies in vulnerable positions. Now, if a player is in a vulnerable position, a defensive player has to dial down their aggression or risk a penalty or ejection. The rule is implemented to enhance player safety, but many hard-hitting defenders bemoan it, saying that it has softened the game and that it is difficult and unfair to force a defensive player to go at half speed during a play just to protect his opponent.
Different rules about head-to-head tackles depending on college or professional. In college, it is called Targeting. The refs review the hit afterwards to verify the defender went after the person's head. If so, they get kicked out of the game and miss the next game. In Professional, they can be ejected from the game for a head-to-head hit. The league will review it after the game and if it was particularly bad, they will fine and possibly suspend the player from multiple games.
I could be wrong because maybe they changed it but I thought if you get kicked out for targeting before halftime you only miss that game but if it happens after half time then you get kicked out for the rest of that game and half the next game.
The game of American football was originally played without helmets. The number of fatalities and severe injuries led to the development of leather helmets. These injuries was also a matter brought before the U.S. congress and was close to being outlawed. Leather helmets did afford some level of protection from lacerations, but not much for impact injuries. The hard-shell helmet then was developed and serious injuries dropped significantly. The face mask was added later and that reduced serious injuries as well. As helmet design kept advancing, one problem arose: the helmet did such a good job of not moving and protecting the outer head, the only thing left to move from an impact was the brain inside the skull, causing traumatic brain injury. Helmet design in the last 10 years has been a search to reduce the brain movement inside the skull; while rules changes have also been an attempt to reduce injuries. I've played both American football and flyhalf on a military rugby team and I understand the differences in the types of collisions and approach. In fact, if you attack as you would in American football, you end up taking yourself out of the defense as a rugby player. American rugby players have to put American football habits out of their muscle memory and learn to play defense differently. Yes, there are still big hits in rugby. However, they are the exception and not the rule. I've seen plenty of compilation videos of big ruby hits and given my share myself. However, the two games really cannot be fairly compared. Just enjoy both.
I split someone's ear cartilage like this trying to catch him on the sideline or our imaginary sideline I mean and then I threw up immediately and could not see for an hour. It's a concussion one of my seven I'm not OK.
If I have kids, they're not gonna suffer through head trauma like I have as an American. They're not playing sports like this. We all have gooey brains not worth it. I see a specialist now because of my concussions from sports. my high school teammate ended up going into the NFL so he returned the kicks, but I was also really fast probably as fast as him, but I was a corner and he was a running back so naturally he returned the ball , but my assignment on kick returns was to blind side the defender running down that contain alleyon the opposite side of the field and absolutely obliterate him running as fast as I could like what you saw in the video but with 50 yards rather than 5 to 10 yards of acceleration. I dished out many concussions and probably received one or two with this assignment.
Fun fact, these players are physically and mentally trained to get right back up after big hits. Even if the hit knocks the wind out of them they are taught to have the grit and endurance to get right back up. It’s when they stay down that they seriously need a minute. If they move their arms and legs in weird ways without getting up then they are seriously concussed. And if they don’t move at all and rag doll to the ground after the hit then they are usually knocked out cold.
American here. Playing sand lot football as a kid no pads, we always tried to take someone out with a hard hit. Not even teenagers and going home bloody, broken or bruised.
Check out "Rules of American Football EXPLAINED! " Also a new rule just added about 6yrs ago, "Targeting", can not hit in the head/neck area, helmet to helmet or launch yourself into a defenseless player .
NFL fan here, I think Rugby is harder on the body, especially with the new rule changes in the NFL. Maybe back in the day was football a super tough sport, but now, athletes are protected more than ever. QB's are untouchable, refs can call unnecessary roughness on any contact hit, kick returns are almost eliminated, the game has changed for sure. They may not tackle as hard in Rugby but that's because they have strict rules for tackling.
@@beardown555 NFL players are world class athletes. The speed, size and power is unmatched. Maybe a dozen of the best rugby players would even stand a chance.
@@richardcarbery7035 Absolutely correct. No argument from me. They are world class athletes , some of the finest in the world. But the new rules now have made the game "safer". In the old days, you were basically allowed to head hunt. Helmet to helmet now is a 15y penalty. If a WR running a mid post is gets hit, it's more than likely an Unnecessary roughness penalty.
@@beardown555 you can think Rugby's tougher all you want but you're wrong regardless. All of your nonsense about the NFL trying to eliminate career ending injuries by implementing safer rules doesn't change anything. You're still colliding with 250-300 lb athletes running full speed every single play. Be serious
I grew up playing football, I was taught that if I hit someone and it didnt hurt me, then I didnt hit them hard enough. I played strong safety, and it was my job to hit the opponent so hard they wouldnt want to touch the ball again
Yea but sometimes you can absolutely truck somebody and it's like walking through a paper wall. Depends how much energy each player exerts into the hit.
Some of the fastest professional athletes you'll see. A few Olympic sprinters with a gold medalist and many also ran on thier college track teams as sprinters . A good number of NFL players run 10.6 or lower in the 100M .
Rugby is nothing like US Football. Rugby players have reacted to this video and said we hit hard in the US. We are trained to go out and hurt people when playing.
They’re paid multi-million dollar contracts to play this hard. Yes, they suffered concussions, fractures and career ending injuries just for their love of football. 💯💯💯 Now some of those hits are penalized but most are below the helmet clean hits. That body slammed one is a flag. The adrenaline and the fast pace hard hits drives these guys insane.
the top 10% get generational wealth...the bottom 90% are hoping the league insurance can cover their medical expenses after their 3 year average career
You're right about players often going helmet first with tackles/plays. When I was a junior cheerleader, we practiced on the same field as the junior football players. I still remember boys as young as 9 years old being yelled at by coaches who were screaming things like, "Make some noise! I wanna hear those helmets slam!" when they were practicing.
The helmet and pads only help so much. It is VIOLENT and you 100% feel it. There's a reason they can only play 1 game per week. It takes at least a week to recover.
@@tonecapone614 they have literally never scheduled a team to play Monnday and then Thursday the same week. They put a lot of work in to making sure teams don't play games that close together. There are games Thursday and Monday but nobody has ever played Monday and Thursday the same week.
I played competitively for 11 years, in the 90's and early 2000's. I know for a fact I have CTE (Even though it can't be diagnosed till death), as well as many other people who maybe don't know it. The violence of the game isn't just these massive hits. It's the ones about half as forceful many times a game. That said, I regret nothing about playing the game.
They apparently can diagnose it. Enzymes in the brain. Also, if you take good care of yourself it doesn’t progress as fast. I think every o line or d linemen ever has to have cte just because they’re colliding on every play but most of the focus of these videos is the receivers
I play D1 College Football at UNC and I can confirm the our pads and helmets take 99% of the damage from these hits and most of the guys shown in this video got right back up and continued playing completely fine
Even though now the NFL has made new rules that help protect players and imo make the game less fun to watch, they still drill each other now and then. Most of us grew up playing football without pads pretty much anywhere we could find big enough. I remember the first time I got leveled by a guy named Haynes. I was running back a kickoff, and he absolutely dropped his shoulder into me and sent me flying a good 5 or more feet. After I shook the cobwebs off and checked to see if I lost any body parts, I congratulated him on an awesome hit. I loved it once I got through the initial pain of it and learned a valuable lesson that day. Don't get hit by a dude 5x your size running full speed at you. It never ends well for one of you.
The more damaging tackles happened in the 70s, 80s, and 90s before the rules changed to reduce the number of injuries. In the earlier years, broken bones were attended to and sometimes the players would go back into the game, with the broken bones. An epic example of this is the QB for the Miami Dolphins (Brian Griese) who broke his leg and dislocated his ankle in a game, had received medical attention on the sidelines, and afterward, he went back in the game and led his team to victory, and the only undefeated season in NFL history.
@@mr.unknown5167 while true, it isn't because the game is more brutal. All sports have seen a constant trend of rising injury numbers. The demand for the body has changed, and so the wear and tear on the body has increased. Jumping and running cause most injuries, when you include stopping as part of those actions. Knees, ankles, and upper leg injuries not related to contact make up the majority of injury types. Also, what is reported/counted as an injury has changed over the years. Today a concussion removes you from the game and a few future games as well. In the past, it may have removed a player from a play or a drive, but they would most likely return. Danny White of Dallas once recorded 3 concussions in the same game. A high ankle sprang is a game-ending injury, whereas in the past it wouldn't be addressed beyond a shot and retape.
@@PapaEli-pz8ff Admittedly this is anecdotal evidence to the contrary but, the 70s had the meanest players, and rules like clotheslining, chop blocking, etc became more enforced, while the famous Steelers vs Cowboys game where the Steelers tackled the Cowboy's receiver and carried him back 20 yards before letting him touch the ground to end the play, inspiring the creation of the rule down by forward progress the next year.
I live in South Carolina, and the Jadaveon Clowney hit from the 2013 Outback Bowl against Michigan (16:05) has rightfully earned it's title as being "Legendary" in this state.
You mean you didn't know? Rugby is a contact game, lots of fun to watch too--the goal is to score and tackling is physical, but this is a head on collision of the strongest, fastest, quickest, meanest athletes in the world. The goal is to score and to punish, not just tackle but separate the man from the ball in a painful way. And, it is a highly complex and strategic sport.
I'm a journeyman electrician and recently did the renovation of the Houston Texans training facility... i saw all the players many times and let me tell you they don't look the same on tv. I'm 5' 4" (short guy) but some of them are giants and the way they train every day is unbelievable
There's only been one NFL player to die on the field of play, in October 1971 Chuck Hughes died of a massive heart attack on the field, I saw that game live on TV. In American football they throw yellow flags, and access penalties, 5, 10, or 15 yard penalty.
I distinctly remember watching a NFL channel program on Ronnie Lott. And they talked about how he brutalized two different mid-level receivers to the point that they died later in the hospital. Not to mention about every other year you use to hear of one or two kids dying due to practicing in extreme heat.
One thing to remember, is these guys are all paid very good money to play, they make more in a single game than most of us Americans who work all year long will ever see in that time.
@@shawnanderson6313 seems pretty clear to me, but if you need an explanation, it’s that these guys aren’t doing this for nothing, they’re living pretty goddamn good lives outside of that football arena.
Rugby is a contact sport, football is a collision sport. They’ve done studies on football hits and even the linemen just standing up and hitting each other have as much force as a small car accident. You have men weighing more than 200lbs each slamming onto each at roughly 15 miles per hour each, with top speeds hitting 20mph. Or, in some cases, ball carriers running at full speed, roughly 20mph, then running into what is essentially a brick wall at linebacker. Linemen are slower, obviously, but they’re not usually involved in the bigger hits either. Padding is both good and bad. It stops the full force of the hit from being centered on spot of the hit, but they also allows players to throw their bodies around for those much bigger hits. A lot of defensive players don’t even tackle anymore, and as someone that loves defense, this annoys the hell out of me. It just means more missed tackles because the ball carrier doesn’t always get taken down by an improper tackle. A lot of the hits in these video are no longer “legal” hits and will get you a penalty. If the hit is bad enough, a big hit on another players head for example, or if a player repeatedly gets penalized for illegal hits, they will be ejected, fined, and possibly suspended for 1 or more games. I am very surprised the Hines Ward block on Keith Rivers wasn’t in this video. 100% legal block that broke Rivers’ jaw. That block led to the Hines Ward rule, a rule that made that type of block “illegal”. Main reason I loved watching football every year was because of the brutality of it. Players today may as well be wearing tutus and playing flag football with all the rules making so many hits “illegal”. Take QBs for example. Pretty much the only area you’re allowed to hit them at all anymore is the torso because taking out their legs or even brushing against them above the shoulder gets you penalized. Direct hits to the head shouldn’t be allowed but I’ve seen players hands barely touch a QBs helmet as they’re being blocked and they get penalized for it. It’s ridiculous. What’s even worse is all the RBs and WRs that put their head down as they’re about to get hit, wind up getting hit in the head because they put their head down, and the defender gets penalized because the ball carrier put their head down. These rule changes aren’t why I stopped watching football, but they did make it easier to walk away.
I remember playing tackle football when I was like 9 or 10 and just getting the wind knocked out of me lol, many people don’t know what that feels like… “An abrupt, forceful hit can cause the diaphragm - the muscle responsible for breathing - to momentarily spasm or even paralyze. Consequently, the lungs empty, and gasping for air becomes impossible, at least for a few seconds.” It is very painful lol and makes you panic because you literally aren’t able to breathe.
As a kid growing up playing sports with all the neighborhood kids and being outside often I must've had the wind knocked out of me at least 20-25 times. Hit hard enough in that soft spot right in the center between the 2 rib cages and I would need several minutes. Hunched over or on your knees gasping for air sucked. I'd say most kids where I'm from have had the wind knocked out of them.
Figured damn near anyone that played a physical sport has had the wind knocked out of them. 90% of these hits the players are having the wind knocked out of them. Almost every time I got the shit knocked out of me from my blindside I would get the wind knocked out of me as well.
You may think the pads and helmets protect them, but really they are used as weapons. Players throw their bodies around because they are emboldened by the padding. You don't see such brutal collisions in other contact sports because of the lack of padding. BTW, many, if not most of those hits are illegal. Some of them weren't in the day that they happened because rules have changed a lot. But there are rules against leading with your helmet, making contact with defenseless receivers, etc. Still, the brutal hits happen and players get penalties, fines, and can be ejected or even suspended for repeat offenses. In college they have a targetting rule which gets you automatically ejected from the game and you have to miss time the next game too, and that's a big deal because you only play 12 games per season in college. 17 games in the pros. It is a violent game by nature, though, regardless of the rules.
When kids used to actually play outside they would play two hand touch football in the street and tackle football in the grass with no pads or helmet and not just kids adults will play tackle football with no pads occasionally depending on the group of friends
When I was 17 i ran head to head with a Vikings lineman in a 40 yard dash, I was 6ft 187lbs, he was like 6'2 270 and I was barely faster than him and I could run the 40 in 4.4... if we where playing against each other he would have folded me in half.
Wtf??? Do you not know how much NFL players weigh?? The only players that are over 300lbs are the linemen, and thats just barely over 300 for the majority of them. For every other position, nearly every player is 200-250lbs. And a lot of receivers and corners are under 200lbs.
@@jjc5871 I said close to 300. D ends average about 275. D tackles over 300. O line over 300. So like I correctly stated before...a lot of players weigh close to or over 300 pounds. 53 man roster has at least 8 o linemen and 8 d lineman, a lot have more. To keep the number low ill say 15 total between the lines.That's almost 30% of each team weighing close to or over 300 pounds which is a pretty high percentage. Let me know if you need help understanding anything else about the NFL.
@@jjc5871 nobody cares. 30% being around 300 pounds is a lot. That was my originally statement and it's correct. You, like normal for yourself I'm assuming, made a dumb comment that was wrong and now you just keeping digging your hole deeper. Take the L and move on. Nobody cares.
I loved my time playing. It's different now. We were actually taught to use the crown of our helmet and use our face mask like crosshairs to aim the hardest hit you could muster. That was the job of a Linebacker. You were to understand that once you suit up and step over that chalk, it's lights-out for anyone wearing the wrong uniform. I've been knocked out and I've knocked people out... many times. It's the game and we love it. It's changed quite a bit, but the speed, strength and size of the players will ALWAYS provide nasty collisions. Love of the game❤
14:43 "Peel back block" where the player is blocking for his teammate and you asked "can you do that?" Not from the blindside. Another Steeler player (Hines Ward) was so good at catching defenders off guard (and destroying them) they had to make a rule. "Hines Ward Huge Block On Rivers" is a good example
You need to react to another video called Here come the boom! The contact is vicious. It's amazing when you hear the pop of the pads on the broadcast. Players have pads from their head to their thighs but the impact is epic.
In American football the referee uses flags to indicate a foul or a violation. He throws it on the ground. He also uses his whistle and hand signs to indicate the violation, penalty and on which team.
Rugby isn't half as rough--there just aren't consistently the full force head-on collisions, and, these guys are bigger, faster, stronger and quicker than Rugby players. The fastest Rugby player now might not even be among the top 10 fastest players on a single NFL team. A large percentage of these guys were sprinters in track in high school and University. Oh, and the equipment--pads and helmets allow them to hit harder--they aren't really very protective, but instead are weapons.
Some of these were HIGH SCHOOL I saw 3 or so. My son got his first concussion a few weeks ago playing Highschool football. Tackles are meant to be shoulder led. You have 2 shoulders and the head in the middle. Sometimes you can't avoid it due to motion while tackle etc but the proper way is shoulder led
14:08 Drew Bledsoe almost died on that play. Bledsoe acted sorta normal on the bench but the team doctor was paranoid about his high heart rate. So they opted to get him to the hospital to get checked on. After a brief examination, they immediately started surgery to save his life. The hit sheared a blood vessel in his chest and he was bleeding internally at a rate of about a pint an hour.
1:38 a penalty was initially called for the body slam tackle. After reviewing the tackle, the official declared it legal. His justification was the defender overpowered the receiver with the ball.
I played full contact football on asphalt and in fields with no pads most of my life before highschool. We hit a lot of cars and broke or dented panels and windshields. My neighborhood went hard when it came to football. We'd call out other neighborhoods. It was just a thing growing up.
It hurts alot when you get hit. Your whole body is stunned. It's warrior like gladiator mixed with skill, speed, agility and huge men...who can deliver so much power. They run the speed of a track star and hit like heavyweight boxers with 250 to 300 pounds behind them.
One scary moment that happened in the nfl was the hamlin incident. Had his heart stop on the field and had to be rushed to a medical facility. They stopped the game entirely because of it
One of the scariest things to see in football or boxing is a Fencing Response, where the arms of the guy getting drilled extend forward unnaturally. The player's brain stem gets jarred about during the concussive event and their arms often shoot out and freeze for a few seconds.
As the equipment has improved over the years, the players really throw themselves into a tackle. There was serious talk about going back to the old leather helmets and fewer pads. So the players would stop launching at each other. Due to the CTE cases a lot of retired players have.
It's interesting that so many of these monster hits involve the gold and red and white helmets and uniforms of the San Francisco 49ers, a team not necessarily known for being a smash-mouth team.
These pros are running at and around 20 mph and colliding with each other as hard as they can. I love it and miss it i only made it to semi pro football. Roll Tide baby.
Yeah I played high school football in the 80s...too slow, and short for college ball. I STILL feel the blind side hit I recieved that dislocated my jaw. I was short, so I was a good hitter. Because of my height i could get better leverage, get lower than you and light you up.. I was coached to be a hitter, just no cheap shots.
All hits are. There was actually a study done on this awhile back and even just the OLine and DLine standing up and slamming into each other had the force of a minor car crash.
10:54 That's Steve Largent getting some payback for a vicious hit by Mike Hardin in a previous game where Hardin knocked Largent unconscious. Largent was a pass receiver and they aren't very well known as hard hitters so it really surprised everyone
at 14:44 when you asked "can you do that?". the player in orange was known as a dirty player, and knocked out a player in yellow from a previous game played against each other. So yellow was getting revenge on the player in orange. And no a peel back block is not legal. Most of these hits are illegal now, but they weren't always. But these hits are still very common. This is also a mixture of High School, College, and the NFL.
they have some rules now to help protect quarterbacks, but in the past before the rules, they would try to injure the other teams quarterback to take him out for the game or the season. Most times they would try to break his legs at the knees by diving into his legs sideways and breaking his knees like that
This video is High School, College, NFL. Yes, flags are a thing for bad tackles if the tackle is done in a way that is outside the set guidelines. Like no leading with the crown of the helmet. The proper way to tackle is facemask on the ball, shoulder to the stomach, arms wrapped around the body just under the buttocks, then lift and spin to a side. That's a "textbook tackle." But there are many ways to get the job done as you saw. I played 20 years at various levels and the rules are changing all the time. For the most part just avoid head contact and grabbing the back of the shoulder pads. A problem that leads to a lot of penalties or flags is when you're running in full speed to tackle someone both of your elevations are changing in the blink of an eye as you setup you tackle or brace for impact and that's a lot of what leads to helmet to helmet collisions. You can't help it, it just happens.
Sean Taylor was an unworldly freakishly gifted and talented football player. If it wasn’t for his untimely death I believe he would been deemed the best safety to ever play the position. Seen the man put those big ferocious hits on opponents then run the fumble back for a touchdown. Guy was remarkable.
I played WR in High School. The 10 yards to 1st down system is what makes American football more brutal than rugby. The defense is designed to not give up a single inch if possible.
Here’s the major thing: These guys are GIANTS! You don’t get the proper perspective of their height, weight and power when watching it on TV. Live…it’s gruesome. The quarterback is generally the lightest player on any time, which is why there are specific rules about hitting/tackling him too hard. It’s called “Roughing the Quarterback.” Basically, any defenseman can hit/tackle a quarterback in a certain way to injure him enough to be removed from the game. Or end his career. Or paralyze him.
There two things you should know when you are watching this video: 1) A 180lb defensive back hitting you at full speed is completely different from a 300lb lineman hitting you at full speed and 2) On the clips from the early 80s-90s many team were using AstroTurf ( a thin synthetic green carpet and in some stadiums it was over concrete). Two hits! The man hitting the man, and the man hitting the ground (and praying they are on grass instead of AstroTurf).
I recently did the math, a collision of the top running back (offense) and the top linebacker (defense) in the NFL in 2023 would be, for someone standing still, like getting hit by 200 kg (440 lbs.) moving at about 9 m/s (30 ft./s). The forces involved are tremendous!
There is unsportman penalty. They are called flaggrant and the naming gets changed every year but usually 2 of those you get kicked off the field and probably fined. Some of these (helmet on helmet) usually end in a fine later in the week since around 2005.
The hit at 13:07 was on Drew Bledsoe in 2001. He was the quarterback of the Patriots and that hit nearly killed him. It broke at least one rib, punctured his lung, and caused internal bleeding. Because of that hit, he was replaced by a little-known second year quarterback named Tom Brady, who would go onto be the greatest quarterback of all-time. Also, the hits that you see that helmet-to-helmet are largely illegal now at all levels of football. It's because of what you're seeing in this video that largely made them illegal. The damage wrought can end a career, if not kill someone...although they were lucky that the latter never happened that I can recall, but those hits cause so many concussions and the long-term medical affects... it's awful.
Football is all about physics. The player moving faster and hitting lower will not feel the hit as much as the player moving more slowly. So the motivation is to hit as hard as possible. A perfect hit is one in which the defensive player plants his helmet into the chest of the player with the Ball. When catching the ball the defense must wait until the ball touches the receiver before contact can be made. A perfectly timed tackle is almost simultaneous to the arrival the ball.
Oh the other thing is all the rugby fans that never played called us (words I won’t type) because we wore pads. My only response was….”it’s not rugby buddy, it’s different.” No disrespect to my friends that play rugby but American Football is not rugby. The pads help, but from personal experience it still hurts like hell.
It's been a good mixture of past and present college and NFL. I think I saw a couple high school games too. Rules have been impenetrable to lessen the brutality over the years.
In 1936, the German military attache to the U.S was invited to a football game. After the game, he cabled Berlin saying that the Americans play a game so violent that Germany should be very careful before fighting them - And they enjoy it!
Even in high school American Football, paramedics and an ambulance are required to be on the premises
Yup even in high school it’s brutal sport
Had our QB break his neck from a huge hit. The whiplash can be absolutely terrible
Shit some pee wee kids hit each other hard af
My high school didn’t have that.
im pretty sure all high school sports are supposed to have that. at least paramedics or some sort of trainer/doctor
Most American boys do this growing up without pads or helmets in fields and parks everywhere. The older we get, the harder we hit and get hit. Its all good clean fun. These guys are just more precise.
It hurts, but you feel hella good later on, comes home with ground burn, scrape you didnt even know it was there, good times
We just played tackle football on the street no pads or helmets usually a 5x5. We’d go home bleeding with blood all over our clothes.
Yeah I remember some padless hits in my youth
. . . and streets, and asphalt playgrounds. Makes a man of you. BTW, broken bones are actually pretty rare; the most common injuries are soft tissue (ligaments, cartilage) sprains and tears.
We called it "Bone Ball". Now that I think about it, we were pretty crazy back in the 80's. Throwing your head into tackles without a helmet. I saw yellow stars a few times. Skateboarding did more damage to my body though.
Rugby is a contact sport,American football is a collision sport.ie separate the man from the ball 🏈
YUP.
No disrespect to Rugby, but they ain't moving and hitting anywhere close to this
Yes. The pads and helmet give you the illusion that you are safe. You are not, lol. Grown men with a bunch of muscle hitting each other full force. No joke.
Agreed, the pads do make you feel a little safe. But then you get hit like that it's shows you that you're wrong. When I played, I dished out hits like that and took hits like that, and it hurts.
My coach used to say, "Dancing is a contact sport, football is a collision sport."
Yeah, I grew up in Sydney, Rugby League heartland and I love the NFL. Aussies would say to me, "yeah but they wear all those pads" and I'd say, because they have to. NFL is miles more violent than Rugby League.
The biggest, strongest and fastest men in America all play in the NFL. In high school I was a 5'9" 180 lb tailback as a senior and I will never forget running head to head with this huge native American tackle. He was well over 300lb. I dont remember much after that hit. My best friend said I was sitting on my butt scooting and rocking back and forth for like 10 seconds lmfao.
That's terrifying. Especially as a high school student when your body is still developing.
Ooh dude! Be there, done that, no fun at all.
Some of these are the fault of the QB. Also, although known for offense actually the SF 49ers have long tradition of hard hitters on defense. However, they used to hit harder back in the day.
@@allover5622 LOL man I watched my little brother basically do the same thing during practice with a kid he graduated with. He sat my brother right on his ass. He went to play at Oklahoma as a starting linebacker and he got drafted to the Lions. His name is Teddy Lehman. Look up his highlights.
I knew a lot of 5'9" guys that were huge when I was in high school. They where way bigger than 180; they got roided out thinking they would get wrestling scholarships. It was strange watching meatsacks that used to be your friends Hah.
Our coaches used to say “you gotta be a little crazy to play this game” and they were right, we were a little crazy , all of us. But also some of the nicest most genuine dudes off the field that you could ever meet. Football doesn’t just train your body and your mind , a good coaching staff trains you into a good MAN as well. You put 100% into EVERYTHING you do in life , treat others with respect . I played several sports at a high competitive level when I was younger but NOTHING comes close to the brotherhood I feel with my old football teammates and really nowadays anyone that played the game at all. It’s like this crazy fraternity or something lol
I can tell that you are ttuly surprised by this. Many European football ( soccer) and rugby fans think that American football is sort of soft in comparison because they wear padding, helmets, etc, and it is not nonstop action. But American football is incredibly difficult and physically brutal. Even the plays are complicated and require strength, speed, and mental and physical agility. Even with the helmets, many are diagnosed with a deteriorating brain condition from the repeated blows to the head.
You're 100% right, they don't realize the pads and helmets actually helps the players hit harder than they would without helmets and pads. It helps you hit someone more than protection from getting hit .
@@blinkonce29 exactly.
@@blinkonce29 Agreed, I played football for 10 years and a couple of seasons of Rugby. It is mentally easier to be more reckless in the pads.
@@karenjayne24 Yes I heard stories & also believe that about the European & other nations believing the NFL is soft. Rugby is brutal so I don't have a issue with what their fans say about the NFL. It is what it is. I don't recall hearing any backlash from Ex Rugby players talking smack so...
On the other hand Soccer players AND Uneducated Fans or is it Hooligans, should keep quiet at ALL TIMES EVERY TIME! I would love to see a soccer player dribbling the ball on a breakaway only to get his butt handed to him by a Football player delivering a text book upper body tackle EVEN without pads & a helmet! Let's see them get up off the field or the stretcher (Really?) then. It's idiotic to even compare the two or 3 sports. STOP the nonsense now. Alright I got it out now any disagreements?
As far as tackling rules are concerned, here's a little history:
Back in the 1950s and 60s, pretty much everything was allowed. You could even "clothesline" players while tackling. That is, wind up and throw you whole arm at a ball carrier's neck to take him out. A guy named "Night Train" Lane was famous for doing this and absolutely destroying people. That move got banned.
"Spearing" (leading with your head and striking with crown of the helmet) has been illegal for decades, but unless it was blatant and very obvious (like diving head first into someone while they were on the ground) it was rarely called. Now football doesn't allow leading with the head in any circumstances and doing so will draw a flag or even get you ejected.
The most controversial rule change at all levels involves penalties for hard hits on "defenseless players" and "targeting." Up until relatively recently, a player could hit an opponent as hard as possible when the player was stretched out trying to catch a pass or not looking or just being vulnerable. This was often done leading with the head, which is now called "targeting" at the college level. This brutal strategy was used to great effect by defensive players to physically intimidate offensive opponents, especially receivers: if you nailed them a few times, they'd lose their courage to try to make plays with their bodies in vulnerable positions. Now, if a player is in a vulnerable position, a defensive player has to dial down their aggression or risk a penalty or ejection. The rule is implemented to enhance player safety, but many hard-hitting defenders bemoan it, saying that it has softened the game and that it is difficult and unfair to force a defensive player to go at half speed during a play just to protect his opponent.
Different rules about head-to-head tackles depending on college or professional. In college, it is called Targeting. The refs review the hit afterwards to verify the defender went after the person's head. If so, they get kicked out of the game and miss the next game. In Professional, they can be ejected from the game for a head-to-head hit. The league will review it after the game and if it was particularly bad, they will fine and possibly suspend the player from multiple games.
They are suspended for the first half of the next game
I could be wrong because maybe they changed it but I thought if you get kicked out for targeting before halftime you only miss that game but if it happens after half time then you get kicked out for the rest of that game and half the next game.
Yeah pretty sure your only out for the game...maybe fined...never first half of a next game? Correct me if I'm wrong...
@@matchu.j In college it’s the rest of the game and first half of the next. Pro can involve fines etc
I game suspension i think in college
Our German foreign exchange student in High school watched our football game and said “No vunder you took Normandy from us.”
🤓
LOL😆Thanks. My Dad (U.S> Army '44-'51) would have got a good laugh from that statement.
Ear to ear smiles, the WHOLE time. It's not just us who is crazy. Humans are crazy, and football is just fun.
The game of American football was originally played without helmets. The number of fatalities and severe injuries led to the development of leather helmets. These injuries was also a matter brought before the U.S. congress and was close to being outlawed. Leather helmets did afford some level of protection from lacerations, but not much for impact injuries. The hard-shell helmet then was developed and serious injuries dropped significantly. The face mask was added later and that reduced serious injuries as well. As helmet design kept advancing, one problem arose: the helmet did such a good job of not moving and protecting the outer head, the only thing left to move from an impact was the brain inside the skull, causing traumatic brain injury. Helmet design in the last 10 years has been a search to reduce the brain movement inside the skull; while rules changes have also been an attempt to reduce injuries. I've played both American football and flyhalf on a military rugby team and I understand the differences in the types of collisions and approach. In fact, if you attack as you would in American football, you end up taking yourself out of the defense as a rugby player. American rugby players have to put American football habits out of their muscle memory and learn to play defense differently. Yes, there are still big hits in rugby. However, they are the exception and not the rule. I've seen plenty of compilation videos of big ruby hits and given my share myself. However, the two games really cannot be fairly compared. Just enjoy both.
Growing up in the USA we played tackle football like this in the streets , playgrounds & parks without pads or helmets.
I miss those days, on the school ground playing other neighborhoods. We tried to hurt them and they wanted to hurt us.
I dislocated my thumb doing this during a lunch football game lol
How I miss doing this with my friends, now all they want to play is basketball
I split someone's ear cartilage like this trying to catch him on the sideline or our imaginary sideline I mean and then I threw up immediately and could not see for an hour. It's a concussion one of my seven I'm not OK.
If I have kids, they're not gonna suffer through head trauma like I have as an American. They're not playing sports like this. We all have gooey brains not worth it. I see a specialist now because of my concussions from sports.
my high school teammate ended up going into the NFL so he returned the kicks, but I was also really fast probably as fast as him, but I was a corner and he was a running back so naturally he returned the ball , but my assignment on kick returns was to blind side the defender running down that contain alleyon the opposite side of the field and absolutely obliterate him running as fast as I could like what you saw in the video but with 50 yards rather than 5 to 10 yards of acceleration. I dished out many concussions and probably received one or two with this assignment.
Fun fact, these players are physically and mentally trained to get right back up after big hits. Even if the hit knocks the wind out of them they are taught to have the grit and endurance to get right back up.
It’s when they stay down that they seriously need a minute. If they move their arms and legs in weird ways without getting up then they are seriously concussed. And if they don’t move at all and rag doll to the ground after the hit then they are usually knocked out cold.
American here. Playing sand lot football as a kid no pads, we always tried to take someone out with a hard hit. Not even teenagers and going home bloody, broken or bruised.
Its both nfl and college and high school highlights
2:40 is a CFL game. Guy in the green jersey is a 6'10" 340 lb. offensive lineman covering on an interception
Just think what their reaction would be if they realized that some of those hits were by teenagers.
@@jenksifyimagine if they saw the 37u games with all the old ass men playing 😂
@@blackforceswithnolaces5273 lol
Check out "Rules of American Football EXPLAINED! "
Also a new rule just added about 6yrs ago, "Targeting", can not hit in the head/neck area, helmet to helmet or launch yourself into a defenseless player .
Rugby players often say their sport is harder to play,they just haven't played Pro Football
They are clueless as f**k.
NFL fan here, I think Rugby is harder on the body, especially with the new rule changes in the NFL. Maybe back in the day was football a super tough sport, but now, athletes are protected more than ever. QB's are untouchable, refs can call unnecessary roughness on any contact hit, kick returns are almost eliminated, the game has changed for sure. They may not tackle as hard in Rugby but that's because they have strict rules for tackling.
@@beardown555 NFL players are world class athletes. The speed, size and power is unmatched. Maybe a dozen of the best rugby players would even stand a chance.
@@richardcarbery7035 Absolutely correct. No argument from me. They are world class athletes , some of the finest in the world. But the new rules now have made the game "safer". In the old days, you were basically allowed to head hunt. Helmet to helmet now is a 15y penalty. If a WR running a mid post is gets hit, it's more than likely an Unnecessary roughness penalty.
@@beardown555 you can think Rugby's tougher all you want but you're wrong regardless. All of your nonsense about the NFL trying to eliminate career ending injuries by implementing safer rules doesn't change anything. You're still colliding with 250-300 lb athletes running full speed every single play. Be serious
I grew up playing football, I was taught that if I hit someone and it didnt hurt me, then I didnt hit them hard enough. I played strong safety, and it was my job to hit the opponent so hard they wouldnt want to touch the ball again
Yea but sometimes you can absolutely truck somebody and it's like walking through a paper wall. Depends how much energy each player exerts into the hit.
Some of the fastest professional athletes you'll see.
A few Olympic sprinters with a gold medalist and many also ran on thier college track teams as sprinters .
A good number of NFL players run 10.6 or lower in the 100M .
NFL RBs, WRs, and CBs average just over 20mph. Safety’s aren’t much different.
Rugby is nothing like US Football. Rugby players have reacted to this video and said we hit hard in the US. We are trained to go out and hurt people when playing.
Defensive football players try to hurt players on offense. Shakes them up so they make mistakes. The games mental as well as physical.
This is why they say, "Rugby is a contact sport while American football is a collision sport."
They’re paid multi-million dollar contracts to play this hard. Yes, they suffered concussions, fractures and career ending injuries just for their love of football. 💯💯💯
Now some of those hits are penalized but most are below the helmet clean hits. That body slammed one is a flag. The adrenaline and the fast pace hard hits drives these guys insane.
the top 10% get generational wealth...the bottom 90% are hoping the league insurance can cover their medical expenses after their 3 year average career
I never played pro football but I did play all through school and you still feel those hard hits the morning
Absolutely, I played Highschool football in the 70's and believe me I think it was even more brutal than pro football players
YES players with OUT the ball can hit each other.
When blocking for the ball carrier or shedding a blocker to get to the ball carrier.
You're right about players often going helmet first with tackles/plays. When I was a junior cheerleader, we practiced on the same field as the junior football players. I still remember boys as young as 9 years old being yelled at by coaches who were screaming things like, "Make some noise! I wanna hear those helmets slam!" when they were practicing.
you guys should check out NHL hockey hits and fights
The helmet and pads only help so much. It is VIOLENT and you 100% feel it. There's a reason they can only play 1 game per week. It takes at least a week to recover.
not true, 4 days is the minimum, you can play monday night football and then play thursday night as well
@@tonecapone614 they have literally never scheduled a team to play Monnday and then Thursday the same week. They put a lot of work in to making sure teams don't play games that close together. There are games Thursday and Monday but nobody has ever played Monday and Thursday the same week.
@@tonecapone614 Sunday and Thursday but not Monday Thursday. Also when you play Thursday you get the rest of the week off and don't play that weekend.
I played competitively for 11 years, in the 90's and early 2000's. I know for a fact I have CTE (Even though it can't be diagnosed till death), as well as many other people who maybe don't know it. The violence of the game isn't just these massive hits. It's the ones about half as forceful many times a game. That said, I regret nothing about playing the game.
I wish you the very best.
They apparently can diagnose it. Enzymes in the brain. Also, if you take good care of yourself it doesn’t progress as fast. I think every o line or d linemen ever has to have cte just because they’re colliding on every play but most of the focus of these videos is the receivers
The rules have changed. You can no longer go head to head. It's definitely a major penalty and a good chance of a fine.
Came here to say this, but you beat me to it.
I play D1 College Football at UNC and I can confirm the our pads and helmets take 99% of the damage from these hits and most of the guys shown in this video got right back up and continued playing completely fine
Go Heels!! NC had some kid named Taylor who hit not bad lol. Enjoy your season 💪🏻
@ thanks man🙏🏾
Even though now the NFL has made new rules that help protect players and imo make the game less fun to watch, they still drill each other now and then. Most of us grew up playing football without pads pretty much anywhere we could find big enough. I remember the first time I got leveled by a guy named Haynes. I was running back a kickoff, and he absolutely dropped his shoulder into me and sent me flying a good 5 or more feet. After I shook the cobwebs off and checked to see if I lost any body parts, I congratulated him on an awesome hit. I loved it once I got through the initial pain of it and learned a valuable lesson that day. Don't get hit by a dude 5x your size running full speed at you. It never ends well for one of you.
The more damaging tackles happened in the 70s, 80s, and 90s before the rules changed to reduce the number of injuries. In the earlier years, broken bones were attended to and sometimes the players would go back into the game, with the broken bones. An epic example of this is the QB for the Miami Dolphins (Brian Griese) who broke his leg and dislocated his ankle in a game, had received medical attention on the sidelines, and afterward, he went back in the game and led his team to victory, and the only undefeated season in NFL history.
I started watching the NFL back in 1968.. that was also a very violent era. The 1970's ushered in the less tackling, more hitting era as I recall
Bob Griese, Brian was his son. Brian never played for the Phins.
Yet there’s more injuries now then back in the day
@@mr.unknown5167 while true, it isn't because the game is more brutal. All sports have seen a constant trend of rising injury numbers. The demand for the body has changed, and so the wear and tear on the body has increased. Jumping and running cause most injuries, when you include stopping as part of those actions. Knees, ankles, and upper leg injuries not related to contact make up the majority of injury types. Also, what is reported/counted as an injury has changed over the years. Today a concussion removes you from the game and a few future games as well. In the past, it may have removed a player from a play or a drive, but they would most likely return. Danny White of Dallas once recorded 3 concussions in the same game. A high ankle sprang is a game-ending injury, whereas in the past it wouldn't be addressed beyond a shot and retape.
@@PapaEli-pz8ff Admittedly this is anecdotal evidence to the contrary but, the 70s had the meanest players, and rules like clotheslining, chop blocking, etc became more enforced, while the famous Steelers vs Cowboys game where the Steelers tackled the Cowboy's receiver and carried him back 20 yards before letting him touch the ground to end the play, inspiring the creation of the rule down by forward progress the next year.
I live in South Carolina, and the Jadaveon Clowney hit from the 2013 Outback Bowl against Michigan (16:05) has rightfully earned it's title as being "Legendary" in this state.
You mean you didn't know? Rugby is a contact game, lots of fun to watch too--the goal is to score and tackling is physical, but this is a head on collision of the strongest, fastest, quickest, meanest athletes in the world. The goal is to score and to punish, not just tackle but separate the man from the ball in a painful way. And, it is a highly complex and strategic sport.
I'm a journeyman electrician and recently did the renovation of the Houston Texans training facility... i saw all the players many times and let me tell you they don't look the same on tv. I'm 5' 4" (short guy) but some of them are giants and the way they train every day is unbelievable
Not many broke bones as you would think were built pretty tough lol
“What you say bout my momma!?” 😂😂😂.. watch the American movie called ‘The Waterboy’
Rugby is nowhere near as violent. No pads but the hits are not as big.
For those who don't the tackler at 6:31 career was ended on that play. He broke his neck because it was a improper tackle.
There's only been one NFL player to die on the field of play, in October 1971 Chuck Hughes died of a massive heart attack on the field, I saw that game live on TV. In American football they throw yellow flags, and access penalties, 5, 10, or 15 yard penalty.
Unless the rules have changed since I stopped watching, pass interference has no set distance.
I distinctly remember watching a NFL channel program on Ronnie Lott. And they talked about how he brutalized two different mid-level receivers to the point that they died later in the hospital. Not to mention about every other year you use to hear of one or two kids dying due to practicing in extreme heat.
Hamlin Technically counts cause he was dead for a couple minutes.
Man i love catching players flat footed before i hit em in highschool that pop was like music
Comparing rugby to American football is like comparing cricket with baseball, ie they don't compare.
more like ping pong to tennis
You use a stick to hit a ball, they’re the exact same.
@@jjc5871 Right. That's like saying bread is like cake because they're both made with flour and eggs, I stand by my comment.
@@Ecrocken Bread is cake if you put icing on it. Duh.
@@jjc5871 I bet your birthday parties were fun.
Thats WHY Americans LOVE football 😂😂and as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan i can say when a fight breaks out its crazy👍👍
One thing to remember, is these guys are all paid very good money to play, they make more in a single game than most of us Americans who work all year long will ever see in that time.
@@shawnanderson6313 seems pretty clear to me, but if you need an explanation, it’s that these guys aren’t doing this for nothing, they’re living pretty goddamn good lives outside of that football arena.
That Zack Dumas hit is still the hardest hit to ever see film.
Rugby is a contact sport, football is a collision sport.
They’ve done studies on football hits and even the linemen just standing up and hitting each other have as much force as a small car accident. You have men weighing more than 200lbs each slamming onto each at roughly 15 miles per hour each, with top speeds hitting 20mph. Or, in some cases, ball carriers running at full speed, roughly 20mph, then running into what is essentially a brick wall at linebacker. Linemen are slower, obviously, but they’re not usually involved in the bigger hits either.
Padding is both good and bad. It stops the full force of the hit from being centered on spot of the hit, but they also allows players to throw their bodies around for those much bigger hits.
A lot of defensive players don’t even tackle anymore, and as someone that loves defense, this annoys the hell out of me. It just means more missed tackles because the ball carrier doesn’t always get taken down by an improper tackle.
A lot of the hits in these video are no longer “legal” hits and will get you a penalty. If the hit is bad enough, a big hit on another players head for example, or if a player repeatedly gets penalized for illegal hits, they will be ejected, fined, and possibly suspended for 1 or more games.
I am very surprised the Hines Ward block on Keith Rivers wasn’t in this video. 100% legal block that broke Rivers’ jaw. That block led to the Hines Ward rule, a rule that made that type of block “illegal”.
Main reason I loved watching football every year was because of the brutality of it. Players today may as well be wearing tutus and playing flag football with all the rules making so many hits “illegal”. Take QBs for example. Pretty much the only area you’re allowed to hit them at all anymore is the torso because taking out their legs or even brushing against them above the shoulder gets you penalized. Direct hits to the head shouldn’t be allowed but I’ve seen players hands barely touch a QBs helmet as they’re being blocked and they get penalized for it. It’s ridiculous. What’s even worse is all the RBs and WRs that put their head down as they’re about to get hit, wind up getting hit in the head because they put their head down, and the defender gets penalized because the ball carrier put their head down. These rule changes aren’t why I stopped watching football, but they did make it easier to walk away.
"Oh, what a hit!" I heard that so many times when Dan Dierdorf worked Monday Night Football way back when.
I remember playing tackle football when I was like 9 or 10 and just getting the wind knocked out of me lol, many people don’t know what that feels like…
“An abrupt, forceful hit can cause the diaphragm - the muscle responsible for breathing - to momentarily spasm or even paralyze. Consequently, the lungs empty, and gasping for air becomes impossible, at least for a few seconds.”
It is very painful lol and makes you panic because you literally aren’t able to breathe.
As a kid growing up playing sports with all the neighborhood kids and being outside often I must've had the wind knocked out of me at least 20-25 times. Hit hard enough in that soft spot right in the center between the 2 rib cages and I would need several minutes. Hunched over or on your knees gasping for air sucked. I'd say most kids where I'm from have had the wind knocked out of them.
Figured damn near anyone that played a physical sport has had the wind knocked out of them. 90% of these hits the players are having the wind knocked out of them. Almost every time I got the shit knocked out of me from my blindside I would get the wind knocked out of me as well.
This is an awesome video! Thank you for highlighting why football is the greatest sport on the planet!
Next year they will allow the players to use machine guns and chainsaws. Only one player is allowed to live. That will lead to better games.
You may think the pads and helmets protect them, but really they are used as weapons. Players throw their bodies around because they are emboldened by the padding. You don't see such brutal collisions in other contact sports because of the lack of padding.
BTW, many, if not most of those hits are illegal. Some of them weren't in the day that they happened because rules have changed a lot. But there are rules against leading with your helmet, making contact with defenseless receivers, etc. Still, the brutal hits happen and players get penalties, fines, and can be ejected or even suspended for repeat offenses. In college they have a targetting rule which gets you automatically ejected from the game and you have to miss time the next game too, and that's a big deal because you only play 12 games per season in college. 17 games in the pros.
It is a violent game by nature, though, regardless of the rules.
This is the same mindset that makes American soldiers the best. They put all they have into the task at hand.
When kids used to actually play outside they would play two hand touch football in the street and tackle football in the grass with no pads or helmet and not just kids adults will play tackle football with no pads occasionally depending on the group of friends
U nailed it EXACTLY! I was one of those kids!!😮
A lot of these guys are close to or over 300 pounds and can run WAY faster than you think a 300 pound human could run.
When I was 17 i ran head to head with a Vikings lineman in a 40 yard dash, I was 6ft 187lbs, he was like 6'2 270 and I was barely faster than him and I could run the 40 in 4.4... if we where playing against each other he would have folded me in half.
Wtf??? Do you not know how much NFL players weigh?? The only players that are over 300lbs are the linemen, and thats just barely over 300 for the majority of them. For every other position, nearly every player is 200-250lbs. And a lot of receivers and corners are under 200lbs.
@@jjc5871 I said close to 300. D ends average about 275. D tackles over 300. O line over 300. So like I correctly stated before...a lot of players weigh close to or over 300 pounds. 53 man roster has at least 8 o linemen and 8 d lineman, a lot have more. To keep the number low ill say 15 total between the lines.That's almost 30% of each team weighing close to or over 300 pounds which is a pretty high percentage. Let me know if you need help understanding anything else about the NFL.
@@beardown3920 And overall average weight of the NFL player is about 245lbs. Wanna try that again??
@@jjc5871 nobody cares. 30% being around 300 pounds is a lot. That was my originally statement and it's correct. You, like normal for yourself I'm assuming, made a dumb comment that was wrong and now you just keeping digging your hole deeper. Take the L and move on. Nobody cares.
These are a mix of high school, College and NFL hits.
Real hits were in the old days.
I loved my time playing. It's different now. We were actually taught to use the crown of our helmet and use our face mask like crosshairs to aim the hardest hit you could muster. That was the job of a Linebacker. You were to understand that once you suit up and step over that chalk, it's lights-out for anyone wearing the wrong uniform. I've been knocked out and I've knocked people out... many times. It's the game and we love it. It's changed quite a bit, but the speed, strength and size of the players will ALWAYS provide nasty collisions. Love of the game❤
14:43 "Peel back block" where the player is blocking for his teammate and you asked "can you do that?"
Not from the blindside. Another Steeler player (Hines Ward) was so good at catching defenders off guard (and destroying them) they had to make a rule. "Hines Ward Huge Block On Rivers" is a good example
You need to react to another video called Here come the boom! The contact is vicious. It's amazing when you hear the pop of the pads on the broadcast. Players have pads from their head to their thighs but the impact is epic.
In American football the referee uses flags to indicate a foul or a violation. He throws it on the ground. He also uses his whistle and hand signs to indicate the violation, penalty and on which team.
You got to be a real g to go down the middle that's the difference between a good receiver or a great receiver. respect
Rugby isn't half as rough--there just aren't consistently the full force head-on collisions, and, these guys are bigger, faster, stronger and quicker than Rugby players. The fastest Rugby player now might not even be among the top 10 fastest players on a single NFL team. A large percentage of these guys were sprinters in track in high school and University. Oh, and the equipment--pads and helmets allow them to hit harder--they aren't really very protective, but instead are weapons.
Some of these were HIGH SCHOOL I saw 3 or so. My son got his first concussion a few weeks ago playing Highschool football. Tackles are meant to be shoulder led. You have 2 shoulders and the head in the middle. Sometimes you can't avoid it due to motion while tackle etc but the proper way is shoulder led
There is ambulances in cases of any injuries so they can take the player out of the game, but there is knee pads, arm pads, many pads with helmets
If you ever get the chance of seeing these players in person its incredible.
14:08 Drew Bledsoe almost died on that play. Bledsoe acted sorta normal on the bench but the team doctor was paranoid about his high heart rate. So they opted to get him to the hospital to get checked on. After a brief examination, they immediately started surgery to save his life. The hit sheared a blood vessel in his chest and he was bleeding internally at a rate of about a pint an hour.
1:38 a penalty was initially called for the body slam tackle. After reviewing the tackle, the official declared it legal. His justification was the defender overpowered the receiver with the ball.
The second clip where you go "they tackle hard!": That was the punter/kicker....the smallest guy on the team (usually)!
I played full contact football on asphalt and in fields with no pads most of my life before highschool. We hit a lot of cars and broke or dented panels and windshields. My neighborhood went hard when it came to football. We'd call out other neighborhoods. It was just a thing growing up.
It hurts alot when you get hit. Your whole body is stunned. It's warrior like gladiator mixed with skill, speed, agility and huge men...who can deliver so much power. They run the speed of a track star and hit like heavyweight boxers with 250 to 300 pounds behind them.
One scary moment that happened in the nfl was the hamlin incident. Had his heart stop on the field and had to be rushed to a medical facility. They stopped the game entirely because of it
One of the scariest things to see in football or boxing is a Fencing Response, where the arms of the guy getting drilled extend forward unnaturally. The player's brain stem gets jarred about during the concussive event and their arms often shoot out and freeze for a few seconds.
As the equipment has improved over the years, the players really throw themselves into a tackle. There was serious talk about going back to the old leather helmets and fewer pads. So the players would stop launching at each other. Due to the CTE cases a lot of retired players have.
It's interesting that so many of these monster hits involve the gold and red and white helmets and uniforms of the San Francisco 49ers, a team not necessarily known for being a smash-mouth team.
These pros are running at and around 20 mph and colliding with each other as hard as they can. I love it and miss it i only made it to semi pro football. Roll Tide baby.
Yeah I played high school football in the 80s...too slow, and short for college ball. I STILL feel the blind side hit I recieved that dislocated my jaw. I was short, so I was a good hitter. Because of my height i could get better leverage, get lower than you and light you up.. I was coached to be a hitter, just no cheap shots.
The NFL has some of the biggest, strongest and fastest athletes in the world. These impacts are often equal to car crashes.
All hits are. There was actually a study done on this awhile back and even just the OLine and DLine standing up and slamming into each other had the force of a minor car crash.
Most clips were NFL, almost as many were college, and at least 5 were high school football.
Majority of those plays , were penalties. All the hits , "head to head" player who gets penalized also gets fined by league
10:54 That's Steve Largent getting some payback for a vicious hit by Mike Hardin in a previous game where Hardin knocked Largent unconscious. Largent was a pass receiver and they aren't very well known as hard hitters so it really surprised everyone
at 14:44 when you asked "can you do that?". the player in orange was known as a dirty player, and knocked out a player in yellow from a previous game played against each other. So yellow was getting revenge on the player in orange. And no a peel back block is not legal. Most of these hits are illegal now, but they weren't always. But these hits are still very common. This is also a mixture of High School, College, and the NFL.
they have some rules now to help protect quarterbacks, but in the past before the rules, they would try to injure the other teams quarterback to take him out for the game or the season. Most times they would try to break his legs at the knees by diving into his legs sideways and breaking his knees like that
This video is High School, College, NFL.
Yes, flags are a thing for bad tackles if the tackle is done in a way that is outside the set guidelines. Like no leading with the crown of the helmet.
The proper way to tackle is facemask on the ball, shoulder to the stomach, arms wrapped around the body just under the buttocks, then lift and spin to a side. That's a "textbook tackle." But there are many ways to get the job done as you saw.
I played 20 years at various levels and the rules are changing all the time. For the most part just avoid head contact and grabbing the back of the shoulder pads.
A problem that leads to a lot of penalties or flags is when you're running in full speed to tackle someone both of your elevations are changing in the blink of an eye as you setup you tackle or brace for impact and that's a lot of what leads to helmet to helmet collisions. You can't help it, it just happens.
I remember there was a show called Sports Science and they said those football hits are the equivalent to a bad car crash
Sean Taylor was an unworldly freakishly gifted and talented football player. If it wasn’t for his untimely death I believe he would been deemed the best safety to ever play the position. Seen the man put those big ferocious hits on opponents then run the fumble back for a touchdown. Guy was remarkable.
I played WR in High School. The 10 yards to 1st down system is what makes American football more brutal than rugby. The defense is designed to not give up a single inch if possible.
Here’s the major thing:
These guys are GIANTS! You don’t get the proper perspective of their height, weight and power when watching it on TV.
Live…it’s gruesome.
The quarterback is generally the lightest player on any time, which is why there are specific rules about hitting/tackling him too hard. It’s called “Roughing the Quarterback.”
Basically, any defenseman can hit/tackle a quarterback in a certain way to injure him enough to be removed from the game. Or end his career. Or paralyze him.
Punter, kicker, CBs, WRs, safeties, and some HBs tend to be smaller than QBs, though denser.
There two things you should know when you are watching this video: 1) A 180lb defensive back hitting you at full speed is completely different from a 300lb lineman hitting you at full speed and 2) On the clips from the early 80s-90s many team were using AstroTurf ( a thin synthetic green carpet and in some stadiums it was over concrete). Two hits! The man hitting the man, and the man hitting the ground (and praying they are on grass instead of AstroTurf).
I recently did the math, a collision of the top running back (offense) and the top linebacker (defense) in the NFL in 2023 would be, for someone standing still, like getting hit by 200 kg (440 lbs.) moving at about 9 m/s (30 ft./s). The forces involved are tremendous!
This is one you invite the boys to for the best reactions
For a change of pace I suggest you watch NFL Big guy moments. Very amusing 😀
There is unsportman penalty. They are called flaggrant and the naming gets changed every year but usually 2 of those you get kicked off the field and probably fined. Some of these (helmet on helmet) usually end in a fine later in the week since around 2005.
Every time I watch a game you know somebody's gonna get hit .
The hit at 13:07 was on Drew Bledsoe in 2001. He was the quarterback of the Patriots and that hit nearly killed him. It broke at least one rib, punctured his lung, and caused internal bleeding. Because of that hit, he was replaced by a little-known second year quarterback named Tom Brady, who would go onto be the greatest quarterback of all-time.
Also, the hits that you see that helmet-to-helmet are largely illegal now at all levels of football. It's because of what you're seeing in this video that largely made them illegal. The damage wrought can end a career, if not kill someone...although they were lucky that the latter never happened that I can recall, but those hits cause so many concussions and the long-term medical affects... it's awful.
When you consider how big these guys are...200 - 350 lbs, and the speed at which they run, it's amazing there aren't more life threatening injuries.
Football is all about physics. The player moving faster and hitting lower will not feel the hit as much as the player moving more slowly. So the motivation is to hit as hard as possible. A perfect hit is one in which the defensive player plants his helmet into the chest of the player with the Ball.
When catching the ball the defense must wait until the ball touches the receiver before contact can be made. A perfectly timed tackle is almost simultaneous to the arrival the ball.
That was a legal tackle
Oh the other thing is all the rugby fans that never played called us (words I won’t type) because we wore pads. My only response was….”it’s not rugby buddy, it’s different.” No disrespect to my friends that play rugby but American Football is not rugby.
The pads help, but from personal experience it still hurts like hell.
It's been a good mixture of past and present college and NFL. I think I saw a couple high school games too. Rules have been impenetrable to lessen the brutality over the years.