[Seven]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

As somebody who's had a few concussions in his life, I'm happy to see less concussions in the NFL.

Also, hate seeing games dictated by the referee every time a defensive player brushes up against Tom Brady or Justin Herberts shoulder pads .00001 seconds after they release the ball, or they actually sack them, and don't properly cradle them on the way to the ground....even though it looks like sometimes, they are trying to cushion their sacks, so they don't get a penalty called on them....and they get the Roughing the Passer call anyways.

Certain QB's are also obviously much more protected then others...and it's usually contingent on how much they complain to the referees. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady were always more protected then Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger.

I think how the game is played today, makes a guy like Jerry Rice, even more impressive. The stats he put up are almost Gretzky like, and he did it during a time when concussing a Wide Receiver running across the middle was celebrated and plastered on all the clip packages on the ESPN highlights.

Also, like Gretzky...Rice was never the biggest or fastest or scariest player on the field. Just the smartest, and with the reflexes and skill to only need the tiniest bit of separation in order to dominate.

Even with the more relaxed rules for QB's and WR's, there's nobody active right now within spitting distance of many of Rice's records. Julio Jones looked like he might have a chance in the Yards and Receptions categories, but he's already aging out of the sport. DeAndre Hopkins is a longshot, but he'll always have the PED tag on him, Larry Fitzgerald got close but finally got too old to play.

Agree on many points. I think Larry Fitzgerald would've done immensely better had he had a competent QB for the majority of his career. We saw what he did with a couple of seasons with Warner and Palmer.