Too Violent by Half

The thing about baseball is I can easily imagine myself hitting or pitching, however deluded that mental picture might be.  Football is an entirely different game, if you will. 

I probably most identify with running backs who, for the life of them, don’t want to be touched; think Gayle Sayers or Tariq Cohen, both of whom at times have looked to be running for their lives.  That I get.  But to be Khalil Mack or Dick Butkus?  Those are nightmares I would forever be running away from.

Which brings us to last Sunday, when Bears’ quarterback Mitch Trubisky received a late, cheap shot from Vikings’ safety Harrison Smith.  Trubisky was clearly going down, if not already on the ground, and yet Smith went ahead and hit him anyway.  The hit to Trubisky’s left side ended up driving his right shoulder into the turf.  His status for Thursday’s Thanksgiving contest in Detroit is day-to-day. 

But it could be worse, and Trubisky could have suffered the kind of injury Washington quarterback Alex Smith did.  Smith broke his leg Sunday against the Texans on the 33^rd anniversary of Redskins’ quarterback Joe Theismann suffering the same injury.  Such is football karma.

Alex Smith’s injury, unlike Trubisky’s, appears to have been “one of those things” while   Harrison Smith was given a penalty for the late hit.  But if Trubisky can’t play, neither should the Vikings’ Smith.  If you can’t take the violence out of the game, you can at least try to make it fair.