Doug Whaley clarifies intent about humans playing football comment

Buffalo Bills general manager Doug Whaley made headlines on Tuesday when he said he didn’t think humans should be playing the game of football. After enduring endless criticism for his remark, which was seemingly hypocritical, Whaley clarified his intent on Wednesday.

Essentially, what Whaley meant was similar to what we say when talking about how people weren’t designed for over-hand pitching in baseball.

This explanation makes a lot more sense than what his original comment (read more here) appeared to state. It was rather shocking to see than an NFL general manager thought the game wasn’t something people should play.

Furthermore, Whaley’s not wrong.

The part that was so alarming about his first statement is that it appeared he was saying it was too violent to play. This is why he had to spend so much of his statement on the safety aspect of the game, how it “has more protection for players now than ever.”

But it would be foolish to think what’s in place now should be the standard. The game still has a ways to go before anyone should be touting how safe it is. Concussions are still a major issue, but thankfully there is new technology being developed that should improve that aspect of the violent game of football.

Unfortunately, based on new information recently uncovered, it appears the NFL itself might still be a long ways off when it comes to treating player safety as a major issue worth pursuing. But you will never hear Whaley, or anyone else at the top of the food chain make such a statement.