Sickening

The facts are these:

On October 9, WTAE Pittsburgh Chanel 4 reported:

Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward has been fined $5,000 by the NFL for a hit during a Monday night game against the Ravens on Sept. 29.
Known as much for his crushing hits on defenders as he is for scoring touchdowns, Ward was not penalized on the play during the Steelers' 23-20 overtime win.
The league deemed the play "unnecessary roughness."

Safety Ryan Clark was also fined $7,500 for a helmet-to-helmet hit on wide receiver Matt Jones during the Steelers' 26-21 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday night.

Both fines come in the same week that linebacker James Harrison was fined $20,000 for criticizing a call made by officials during the Jacksonville game.

On October 30, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Reported:

Safety Ryan Clark revealed that he was fined $5,000 by the NFL for wearing eye black with the No. 21 etched into it Sunday. Clark said he did it to honor his late Redskins teammate Sean Taylor, who was murdered in his Florida home last year. Clark, who wears No. 25, wears a No. 21 practice jersey in honor of Taylor. Clark said he will continue to wear the eye black with "21" in it.

A month later, Clark was featured in the Post Gazette again:

Ryan Clark, absolved by the league office for what should have been a legal hit Sunday in New England, is ready to do it again, and if he gets a chance to tee-up Terrell Owens of the Cowboys, he said he'll take it.

"I try to hit everybody," Clark said yesterday, hours after learning the league judged his hit on Patriots receiver Wes Welker clean. "I don't care which one. I'll take them all, I don't turn any of them down. We're just going to go out there and play.

"If that opportunity presents itself [against Owens], of course you take that shot...

Clark's big hits from his free safety position have been resounding this season, drawing one fine and some putdowns from the opposition. Even New England cheap-shot artist Vince Wilfork called him a cheap-shot artist.

He was flagged by at least two officials on the field Sunday when as a pass was tipped and sailed beyond Welker's reach, Clark slammed into him, shoulder first. The officials told Clark he should not leave his feet, but the NFL's vice president of officiating said there's no rule against that.

"A lot of people think it's a foul to leave your feet," Mike Pereira told the Boston Herald. "Launching is not a foul. ... It is a foul to hit with your helmet against a defenseless receiver. It is a foul to throw a forearm into the neck or head area of your opponent. I don't think either of those things happened. I'm not a fan of those high hits, but if you do it with your shoulder, you're OK."

In other words, there should have been no flag thrown.

"Like I said Sunday, I thought the hit was clean," Clark said. "I was just playing football. It's good they said something like that but if you look at that situation, if we'd have lost that game, if that drive would have cost us the game, it would not have mattered much what they say after the fact."

Still, Clark's big hits in the secondary add another component to the creation of the NFL's best defense...

Clark received the ultimate compliment from the offense's big hitter, Hines Ward.

"I watched it," Ward said, "and I heard it from the sideline and I said, 'Oooh, I'm glad that wasn't me.' "
...
The controversy that swirled around Clark's hit on Welker is merely the latest involving the Steelers this season. Ward twice was fined for hits in which he was not penalized, and he too was absolved by the league for a block that broke the jaw of Cincinnati linebacker Keith Rivers and riled the Bengals. Clark and linebacker LaMarr Woodley also were fined for hits.
...
"I think our team is being made out to be somewhat dirty at times and I think we're just physical and play a hard-nosed brand of football. But you can't stop playing that way."

Readers can judge for themselves whether the unapologetic Clark was wrongfully made out to be somewhat dirty (or rather, whether Clark is only "somewhat" dirty):



This is, of course, not the end of the story. The Times describes the action in the AFC championship game:

...It was, fittingly, a brilliant 40-yard interception return for a touchdown by Steelers safety Troy Polamalu — shades of his Ravens counterpart Ed Reed — that secured the win with 4 minutes 39 seconds remaining in the game.

Then a brutal hit on Willis McGahee dislodged the ball from his hands, gave him a neck injury that caused him to be taken off on a cart, and handed the ball to the Steelers, ending the Ravens’ last chance for a comeback.

The hit in question was a flagrant helmet-to-helmet hit. Not only was Clark not -- as by rules he should have been -- ejected, the result of the play -- a McGahee fumble -- stood.



Football is, of course, rightfully, a physical, hard hitting, game. But it ought not be a barbaric game. Nobody should like to see the stretcher come out. There should be no place in football for players aiming to seriously injure -- or kill -- other players. At the very least, Clark plays the game with callous disregard for the possibility of serious injury to other players or himself.

To be fair, this is not simply about Clark. The Steelers as a team take pride in their, not simply toughness, but almost brutality. The organization is, above all, concerned about how Clark contributes to their NFL-best defense. Clark has been made to understands viciously cheap-shotting opposing players as part of his job. The NFL itself is as, if not more, concerned about individual etchings in eye-black and players criticizing calls then reckless, life threatening, game-play.

On a simple human level, these morally empty prioritizations are sickening.