The powers that govern football have made great strides in implementing rules to protect football players. They failed to do that in Gainesville, Florida on Saturday.
Football is a violent game. There will be injuries. It’s an unavoidable, unfortunate facet of the game. In recent years rules officials, led in the SEC by Steve Shaw, have put an emphasis on player safety.
In July, speaking at SEC Media Days, Shaw explained new rules going into effect this season. Part of the new rules was the ability to review plays that could be deemed targeting.
On Saturday Gator running back Dameon Pierce was seemingly knocked unconscious by a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit that was clearly targeting by the letter of the rule.