I was sickened by the Baltimore-Pittsburgh game two weeks ago, which ended not in athletic theatrics, but a 15-minute vigil on the field for Baltimore's Willis McGahee, who'd been left crumpled by a helmet-to-helmet hit, a vigil followed in the days after by the usual b.s. about how he was fine and dandy. The rise of soccer as a world game has everything to do with football's violence, which destroys superb athletes.
That's another reason I so enjoyed yesterday's Super Bowl, one of the greatest games this fan has ever seen: there was little violence on the field, and the game was distinguished not by hits but by balletic catches. Yes the refs surely called too many personal fouls (and the tilt went from Pittsburgh's favor in the first 3 quarters to Arizona near the end), but it was an athletic game not a pugilistic one. (And Steeler James Harrison's bid to be the standout player of the game was demolished in the fourth quarter by the mugging he performed on Aaron Francisco.) About time; and it shows that just as baseball changed following the beanings of Tony Conigliaro and Paul Blair, the league has a lot of control over how much violence there is on the field. (Phil Weiss)
