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"FacebookPinterest\n\n Larry Fitzgerald cut inside, snatched the football out of the air, and braced himself for the punishment he knew was coming. As the Arizona Cardinals' peerless wideout was being dragged down by a Seattle Seahawks defender, he noticed the ominous presence of safety Lawyer Milloy, a veteran enforcer who made his name on bone-jarring brutality. As Milloy closed in for the kill shot, Fitzgerald hit the Qwest Field turf and, like Kevin Bacon's submissive pledge in Animal House, assumed the position. To his utter amazement, the next thing Fitzgerald saw was Milloy standing over him with a twisted smile on his face.\n\n \"Fitz, you're lucky I can't hit you the way I want to hit you,\" Milloy said. \"You know if they weren't handing out these fines, I'd have clocked you.\"\n\n Fitzgerald had been spared by the league's hastily revised guidelines prohibiting helmet-to-helmet hits\u2014guidelines which threaten fines upwards of $50,000 and possible suspensions for first-time offenders and which warn players they may be held responsible for the consequences of their collisions, regardless of intent. In locker rooms and film sessions, players are debating the merits of the sea change, balancing concepts like brotherhood and player safety with fears that the game they love is being neutered. Amid concerns that the steep financial consequences could cause tentative play and change the game forever, GQ solicited the thoughts of eight of the NFL's more passionate and eloquent veterans, including Pittsburgh wideout Hines Ward, who will play for his third Super Bowl ring on Sunday night. It's a look inside the helmets of the men the league is ostensibly trying to protect.\n\n Dallas Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman:\n\n Let's face it, a lot of us are in this game because we're a little crazy, and I think that's a big reason the sport is popular. Yes, there are risks, but other jobs have risks, too. Coal miners go to work knowing the risks. They're making a choice to support their family. We all know what we signed up for.\n\n Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita:\n\n A lot of people you talk to, if you ask them, \"Why did you get into playing football?\" they'll tell you, \"When I was 8, I could've played soccer or another sport, but I played football because I wanted to hit somebody.\" All of us inherently like contact. But when an episode of Real Sports shows one of our predecessors lying in bed, speaking to his incredible wife through his eyelids and a computer, it rips our hearts out.\n\n Seattle Seahawks linebacker Lofa Tatupu:\n\n Oh yeah, safety is important. You hear the horror stories\u2014the onset of dementia and the things that some of the ex-players are going through\u2014and it's scary. But you've got to remember, no one forced you to play football. You chose it. If you want to completely avoid health risks, maybe you shouldn't be playing this game. We signed up for this, man. My dad [former Patriots running back Mosi Tatupu] played, and I look at the lifestyle it afforded me growing up and what I'm going to leave behind for my family. You only live once. I know there's a risk, but to me all of this outweighs it.\n\n Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk:\n\n When you're 21 years old, single, and full of piss and vinegar, you think, \"Nothing's going to happen to me.\" Back then I'd have cut off my arm just to play. My view at the time was, if playing for ten years in the league meant I had to walk around with a limp, that'd be a good tradeoff. Now I'm 34 and I have five kids, and my perspective's changed. A limp is one thing, but if you're talking about brain trauma, that's a whole lot scarier.\n\n Seattle Seahawks safety Lawyer Milloy:\n\n I was part of the head-trauma group that went down to Florida the week before the Super Bowl last year [for a gathering of the Mackey-White Traumatic Brain Injury Committee, which brought together NFL players and researchers]. It was definitely alarming. But football is kind of like the military\u2014you know what you signed up for. Our sport was built around big hits. Now you can get fined $50,000 for a play you've been taught to make your whole career? Come on!\n\n Fujita:\n\n One thing that was classic, and ridiculous, was when the NFL sent out that video of proper and improper hits. We watched it, and as soon as we left the room, players and coaches were blurting out, \"Now I'm really confused!\" It's so easy for someone sitting in New York to look at a hit in superslow motion and rewind it a hundred times and say, \"He should have ducked in here.\" It's not that simple.\n\n Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Ronde Barber:\n\n The video came across like a threat. [NFL ecutive vice president of football operations] Ray Anderson said, \"You are on notice.\" And we were like, \"What are you talking about?\" Of course, we're employees of the league, but what are we, stepchildren? This is our job. It's not like you're talking to a 12-year-old kid. We're grown men. We have families. We make money for the league. They have a way of belittling us. The bottom line is, you can argue it for days, but it's completely subjective, and we are at their mercy.\n\n Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Hines Ward:\n\n Man, nobody paid attention to that video. We don't know what they want. They're so hypocritical sometimes. They came out with these new helmets that are supposed to stop concussions. If they care so much about our safety, why don't they mandate that we wear the new ones? If they're so worried about what concussions will do to us after our careers, then guarantee our insurance for life. And if you're going to fine me for a hit, let the money go to veteran guys to help with their medical issues. To say the league really cares? They don't give a fuck about concussions. And now they want to add on two extra games? Are you kidding? Come on, let's be real. Now that these new guidelines are in place, you'll see more and more guys lying to doctors to stay on the field. Contracts aren't guaranteed. If a guy's contract is coming up and he gets his bell rung\u2014and if he has a concussion, he'll have to leave the game and maybe miss another one\u2014trust me, he ain't tellin' nobody. Look at [49ers running back] Brian Westbrook. He was an elite player who had concussion issues, and he struggled to find work after the Eagles cut him. Guys saw that. I'm telling you, if you're a guy on the bubble or playing for your next contract, you're going out there and jeopardizing your life to get that payday.\n\n Fujita:\n\n Everybody doubts the league's sincerity. Quit pretending to be the flag-bearers for our health care and safety when you're telling us in the next sentence that we need to go to 18 games. That doesn't cut it. Obviously you don't give a shit about our health and safety. Remember that photo of [Steelers linebacker James] Harrison making a hit on [Browns receiver Mohamed] Massaquoi? They fined him $75,000 for that\u2014and at the same time, they were selling it on NFL.com for $24.99. They kept it there until someone shamed them into taking it down. I was so pissed off by the hypocrisy of it all. I was walking around the locker room talking shit, and others were doing the same thing.\n\n Fitzgerald:\n\n James Harrison got fined $75,000. That is a lot of money, man. A lot. It's just crazy. Losing that kind of money is just unjustifiable. So yes, guys will change. It's definitely going to change the way the game is played.\n\n Barber:\n\n There have been so many rules to help the offense in recent years. Being able to intimidate with big hits, it really is kind of the last thing we have. The real disadvantage for us started a couple of years ago, when they started classifying \"defenseless\" players. At the time, I didn't understand how you could have a defenseless player on a football field. It's an oxymoron. And yet defensive players are never considered defenseless, even when they go for our knees.\n\n Milloy:\n\n Here's an idea: Fine the blocker for missing the block that gets the quarterback hit. Fine the quarterback for laying out the receiver.\n\n Fujita:\n\n A couple of funny things I've heard in the locker room: Okay, fine the quarterbacks and offensive coordinators for putting receivers in that situation in the first place. Also, if that's how you're going to enforce things now, how about no more run after the catch? When the receiver comes down with the ball, he has to stop.\n\n Newman:\n\n You hear about dementia, but you also hear about guys like Earl Campbell. His head is fine, but he can't walk. That's no good, either. And I think the way they're calling it now and asking players to lower their targets, you're going to see more brutal leg injuries.\n\n Ward:\n\n I'd rather have a concussion than have my knee blown out and not be that fast guy I used to be.\n\n Fitzgerald:\n\n At the end of the day, if you're a fan, you want to see the greatest athletes playing most Sundays\u2014Andre Johnson, Roddy White, Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson. This will help ensure that. Rules always change in sports. There was no three-seconds until Wilt Chamberlain played and they had to react to his dominance. In hockey, they had to create the blue line, because guys were cherry-picking. Every sport has rules that they change to make the game more competitive and to protect athletes\u2014and guys adapt, and the game goes on.\n\n Fujita:\n\n With more awareness of all the head-trauma stuff, there's a sense that we do have to take care of each other. That's why I think that there are no more dirty players; 99.9 percent of these \"vicious\" hits are done by clean players who are playing hard. That's just the way it is. We have to adapt. We will adapt. I don't like it, but that's the reality.\n\n Tatupu:\n\n You can only hope the helmet technology will get better. But in the end, isn't the big hitting what fans love? Isn't that what they wanted? The gladiatorial nature, the huge hits. You wonder, if that goes away, will we lose viewers?\n\n Fujita:\n\n Why do we still do it, knowing what we now know? Because we've always understood there's an inherent risk of playing this game, and because we still love Sundays."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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