We all know football is a dangerous sport.

I even thought that when I was playing growing up, until I stopped playing in high school. I’ve seen my fair share of big hits which in my opinion is all apart of the game. You’re always taught to keep your head on a swivel, but recently we’ve seen the “targeting rule” get tweaked season after season in college sports toward the wrong way.

College football implemented the targeting rule just before the 2008 season so that players wouldn’t use contact toward the head or neck area. In hindsight you would think this is a great rule, but this has caused a lot of unnecessary penalties towards players who were called for this.

When penalized for a targeting hit the booth automatically reviews the call and once its confirmed the player is then disqualified for the contest and then asked to sit out for the first half of the next game. 

You only get so many opportunities to play in a game and to have to get ejected and miss part of the next game is very costly. 

Players have had to miss big moments for a hit that wasn’t targeting or for a hit that wasn’t intended to be towards the head.

The problem is that their are not levels to the targeting penalty and you get hit with a big penalty. In my opinion, with having the different levels of targeting penalties you then could be able to correspond the hit with its infraction.

I do believe the game is becoming more safer with this rule being implemented, but all officials need to learn to be on the same page so that the rule is universal around the country.

I’m tired of seeing big-time players get ejected for a hit that can just be worth the penalty and not the overall ejection that can shift the turnout of a game.

So far this rule is affecting athletes ability to go out and play in games that have a true impact on their future.