NFLPA Exec Dir DeMaurice Smith appeared on ESPN's "SportsCenter" this morning to discuss the penalties being meted out to players for violent hits to the head. On the issue of whether players feel the league should be doing more for player safety, Smith said, "We have a group of players who have been committed to the issue of safety for decades. … Every year we take a look at the range of issues that affect player safety: their interaction with their team doctors, field issues, equipment issues, enforcement-of-rule issues. We're always striving to try to come up with ways to make a very violent game safer each and every day. If those are things that we can do a better job of, I know that we and the league agree that there are things we should always be striving for."
Smith said of the firestorm surrounding the punishment Ravens RB Ray Rice received for his domestic abuse case, "The punishment needs to fit the crime, but I also believe that we need to make sure that we are impressing upon our young men that they need to be good husbands, good fathers, good members of their community" ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 8/26).
