LaMarr Woodley was only just getting started when he criticized the NFL via Twitter for the “Steelers Rule” which will fine teams for excessive player safety rules infractions.
“Man, they’re getting ridiculous. Football is turning soft now,” Woodley told Rich Gannon and Adam Schein on SiriusXM NFL Radio on Wednesday. “Too many fines. Too many penalties protecting the quarterback every single play. Defensive guys can’t be defensive guys no more.”
Woodley seems to believe that fines in general aren’t an effective deterrent.
“Man, I think it’s so stupid. I mean, it’s football. I mean, that’s what you signed up for. You signed up, when you played football you knew it was going to be an aggressive game. There’s a chance of you getting hurt and having serious injuries. So that’s what you signed up for.
“So I think having all the fines and penalties is stupid because it is taking away from the game. We knew what we were signing up for when we started playing football. We knew that. Everybody knows that. Every quarterback knows that. Roger Goodell knew that. I don’t know if he ever played football so maybe he don’t really understand the hard hitting of the sport,” Woodley said. (Goodell was the captain on his high school team.)
Ultimately, complaints about Goodell’s measures for player safety are to be expected. And they won’t make much of a difference. It sounds like fining teams won’t change Woodley’s approach.
“We didn’t get six Lombardis by playing soft football,” Woodley said. “We got them by playing aggressive football, hitting teams hard, and I don’t think that’ll ever change. I don’t care how many times we get fined, that’s just the way we play football. And that’s why we’re gonna keep racking up Lombardis, because that’s how we play football.”
