COLUMN: Protecting professional athletes

     A few timely happenings reared their ugly faces this week that affected a couple of teams I root for. The biggest blow happened Sunday afternoon when my beloved Packers lost their starting quarterback to a season-ending collarbone injury.

     Aaron Rodgers took a hit after throwing a pass by Viking linebacker Anthony Barr. The hit was legal and it wasn’t done with any malice, in my opinion. Yet, Barr’s hit is being questioned.

     Was it necessary? Probably not. But that’s football. Packer fans will blame Barr probably the rest of the season for knocking out their star quarterback. The reality of it all is football is a violent sport. It has been for ages. Even with rules implemented to make it much safer.

     But with bigger, stronger and faster athletes, until the NFL goes to 2-hand touch or flag football, players will be hurt and many likely for the season.

     Baseball rules. If you are not following the Cubs and Dodgers, you missed a play the other night that created some controversy. On a bang-bang play at the plate, Cubs catcher Wilson Contreras stuck out his left leg and blocked the plate, while possessing the baseball.

     A perfectly thrown ball by Cubs leftfielder Kyle Schwarber, resulted in an out of Dodger shortstop Charlie Culberson. The Dodgers challenged the call and the umpires reversed it correctly, according to the rule.

     Many Cub fans have taken to social media outraged at the reversed call, even though it really had no effect on the result of the game. Manager Joe Maddon ripped the rule in his press conference following the game and is asking the league to take a look at changing it. This rule was only recently changed to protect the catchers.

     My take on the rule is that it needs to be tweaked. Instead of not letting the catcher have access to blocking the plate, how about a compromise? What if he is allowed to block the plate while possessing the ball with his leg, within the confines of the home plate area?

     A runner can still slide through an outstretched leg and the catcher does assume some risk by doing so.

     Baseball has changed with the advent of replay and I am not sure for the better. When sliding into second base to break up a double play, the runner is now expected to do so in a certain manner as to not hurt the opposing infielder.

     I get that but taking out the SS on such a play is an important part of the game. Pretty soon the base runner will be expected to slide in his cautious manner, then jump up and give the infielder a hug and a peck on the cheek. To quote a very unsuccessful place kicker, Charlie Brown, “Good grief”!