Last weekend, Washington Redskins safety Brandon Meriweather served a one-game suspension for repeatedly hitting players above the shoulders and subsequently putting them in extreme danger of head or neck injury.
After his suspension, Merriweather said, “I just got to take people’s knees out … You’ve just got to go low now, man. You’ve got to end people’s careers.”
There are a few things that Meriweather is not thinking about here as he says those words. It's obvious that he is forgetting how the human body works. We are not made of only knees and heads, but we actually have a lot of body parts in between. For instance, the chest, the arms, the waist, and the thighs — all very valid areas in which defensive players can make safe, skillful tackles.
For Meriweather to come out and insinuate that he is now going to be intentionally attacking players at the knees is a sinister and mean-spirited way of going about the game.
So I say to Meriweather, think about the damage you could be doing to someone’s health if you rip at their knees or go head first into someone else’s helmet. Use your head (not literally) and find a way to tackle in a safe manner, without ending careers or severely injuring other players.
Reach the photo editor at dvalente@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @DomJValent
