Fine Blotter, Week 15, Part 1: NO SHIT SHERLOCK, and why the whole game needs to go... Now.

• Pittsburgh Steelers:  Terence Garvin, $25,000 for "being a real man" and breaking the punter's neck and jaw with that helmet shot.

Oh, and, according to NFL.com/Yahoo! and the Vice President of Officiating, you damn right there should've been a flag on that play.

Here's a major problem I (and another contributor to this blog I speak with regularly) have:  The VP of Officiating makes it clear that the punter, by definition, is a "defenseless player" throughout the play.

The thing is:  That obfuscates the whole issue.  GARVIN LED WITH HIS HELMET, YOU FREAKING MORONS!!!

You watch the video, he literally lines him up five yards away for the cheapie.  And, what, Mr. VP of Officiating, non-defenseless players can get the helmet or something?

You see, why don't ALL PLAYERS get that level of protection?  On ALL PLAYS, Mr. VP?

You're obfuscating the issue:  Garvin lined him up at least five yards away, and speared him in the jaw.

No flag, no suspension.

(and no ejection for Michael Crabtree either, on the second play they discuss -- which was flagged 15 yards, and I'm not sure shouldn't have been an ejection for unsportsmanlike conduct when he chucked the ball, with the back judge warning him not to, into the Tampa huddle 50 yards away)

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Of course, this, and NBC Sports Network's Shaun King, are saying that the NFL officiating is the worst it's ever been -- even the replacements.

YOU HONESTLY THINK THIS IS UNINTENTIONAL?

He even goes so far as to say that the game is now too fast.

Well, given what we are learning about the fates of even star players from previous eras (Duper, Dorsett, McMahon, et. al. -- and those are the ones who get to live to tell the tale), would that not make a very good case as to say that football is, as was once said, "Unsafe at Any Speed"?

But that's just it.  People literally want to watch a man die for being a "real man" on the football field.

And when you look at the histories of many of these players, and their rap sheets while in the NFL, you have to draw the conclusion that part of what is making this game the orgy of violence that would make the Roman Empire jealous (as my anonymous source has said often in disowning the sport) is that the sport, establishment, and athlete base is so criminal, the sport of football (and, hence, dare I say, the entire United States sports machine) cannot be saved.

I used to do this blog in the belief it could.

Now, I am left to continue to look at things and try to lend some voice that will at least be within the scope of law -- for I believe any real change would have to come with a criminal act of it's own attached.