Shocker.
While Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison is the only known player to consider retiring based on the new rules, there are plenty of players expressing their frustration.
And why wouldn’t they be unhappy? These players have been trained to play defense at two levels — vicious and fierce — and now they’re being asked to tone it down.
Many refuse.
“It isn’t going to stop me one bit,” Lions safety Louis Delmas told The Detroit News. “I’m going to do what I do. I’m going to go out there and try to hit a person as hard as I can.”
Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder even thinks there’s a bit of a controversy going on at the top and that the league is devaluing defensive players.
“[The NFL] wants to save the receivers and quarterbacks because they sell all the jerseys. They don’t give a damn at all about defensive players because we don’t sell as many jerseys as them,” he told The Associated Press.
“What they’re trying to say is, ‘We’re protecting the integrity’ — no, you’re not,” Bears defensive back Charles Tillman told the AP. “It’s ruining the integrity. It’s not even football anymore. We should just go out there and play two-hand touch Sunday if we can’t make contact.”
Crowder, like Delmas, won’t change his game.
“If I get a chance to knock somebody out, I’m going to knock them out and take what they give me,” he explained. “They give me a helmet, I’m going to use it.”
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