By: Eric Thomas

The NFL is just the latest place where the wussification train has stopped in America. Apparently Roger Goodell has decided to make player safety the top priority, making fans nervously shift, hoping that their favorite game will not be ruined.

Some fans that take the issue of player safety seriously. They gasp at the big hits and wince when someone's leg is destroyed. But there are other fans who think that adding any measure of player safety or changing rules to mitigate damage somehow adds to the growing "wussification" of America. America has become softer, and the NFL is a shell of its former self.

I totally agree! Taking the big hits out of football would destroy the game. Now granted, I like most fans tend to cheer the hardest on touchdowns and defensive turnovers, but that doesn't mean I am wavering on my point. When the NFL talks about getting rid of the bone crushing hits, I wonder what I have done wrong and why am I being punished?

I started Googling this and this "wussification" of sports isn't new. 2000 years ago, sports were at its most pure. Gladiators went into arenas and disemboweled each other, all played out in front of a cheering crowd. But then killjoys like Charlemagne came in and busted up all the fun. So called "enlightened people" started playing the role of "fun police". They started introducing safety equipment like plate armor. Of course, it ruined it. There were no maces or swords cutting through naked flesh anymore. It made the game take so much longer and less exciting.

Today's NFL players are turning into just the latest whiny special interest group. I agree with a lot of fans! The players make all kinds of money! Never mind that they get paid so much money because there is a market for it. Owners want to get the best players to sell the most seats. Isn't that beside the point? NFL players make a lot of money so who cares if they get hit hard? Never mind that plenty of players make the league minimum, their salaries are ravaged by agents and Union dues. No one is forcing them to be football players, right?

Fans slam our money on the masthead and we want to see big hits. We want to see people's joints get destroyed through brute force. We want people to struggle off the ground unable to breathe! We want to see people who are unable to walk because their brains have been mashed into their skull inside their heads! Its only part of the wussification of America, which medical teams need to hold out the player because recent evidence suggests that it could take weeks to figure out the extent of the disaster throbbing inside their skulls.

I am so tired of these whiny ex players trying to ruin my game. A caller actually put it the best, when he said that the big hits in pro football are basically "my whole Sunday". Well put! I totally agree. The seconds of enjoyment I get out of a big hit are totally worth another person's future! I also think about how I totally forget the big hit if the offense scores a touchdown a couple of plays later, but still, don't take away my big hits!

Let's not let the NFL be the latest place where we make everything softer? So what if you suffer from dementia at the ripe old age of 40? So what if you are severely injured in a game and spend 50 years paying a nurse to empty a plastic bag that hangs on the side of your wheelchair? These softies are apparently afraid of dealing with the symptoms of Alzheimer's in their 40s. It turns out they might want to avoid crippling anxiety problems that finally lead them to seek relief through suicide, where they bury the muzzle of a gun into their chests so that their brains can be studied postmortem. They don't want their final thought on this earth to be a prayer that no one else will suffer the horror that day to day life has become, before the squeeze of a trigger reduces their very being to a memory. Again, I paid money for this.

But of course, I am sure that the NFL will wimp out and probably make some minor rule changes and hand out fines for brutality. I am sure that I will always look back fondly on the days of old. Never mind that fantasy stats are all based on yardage and touchdowns. Never mind that fans who have thought this out rationally would come to the conclusion that brutality wouldn't be missed even for a second. Never mind that it's the scoreboard that matters in the end, and the game is better when star players are healthy. Never mind that there is a distinct difference between a tackle and an attempt to hurt someone.

Again, if the NFL fans can't watch someone give hand over their lives for a moment of entertainment, it might not be worth watching at all.