TWO BITS: volleyball wins, Crowder on helmets

By Adam Silverstein
October 21, 2010

1 » No. 1 Florida Gators volleyball (17-1, 10-0 SEC) improved to 9-1 against top 25 opponents this season with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-20) shutout victory over the No. 21 Tennessee Volunteers (15-5, 7-4 SEC) on Wednesday at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, FL. Florida junior outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel led the Gators with a team-high 12 kills. Junior right-side/setter Kelly Murphy contributed a match-high 15 digs along with seven kills and 17 assists, while senior OH Callie Rivers added nine kills and seven digs. Florida is rated No. 1 in the NCAA’s Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) and has won 12-straight matches since falling to then-No. 1 Penn State on Sept. 10.

2 » Former Gators linebacker Channing Crowder of the Miami Dolphins, spoke out Wednesday when asked about the NFL’s decision to seriously crack down and possibly suspend players for helmet-to-helmet hits. “If I get a chance to knock somebody out, I’m going to knock them out and take what they give me,” Crowder said. “They give me a helmet, I’m going to use it. If I’m knocked out, I don’t know where I’m at, I can’t say my name, now I can’t play football. If I get hit in the head and black out for a second and now I get back up dizzy, OK, I’m ready to go.” Crowder believes the NFL is “making a big deal about nothing, adding, “They want to save the receivers and quarterbacks because they sell all the jerseys. They don’t give a damn at all about the defensive players because we don’t sell as many jerseys as them. If they want to change football to a graceful sport, change it all the way to a graceful sport. Don’t try to save the quarterbacks and receivers because they make the money, which that’s what they’re doing.”

Extra BIT » Over the summer we here on OGGOA covered former Florida defensive end Thaddeus Bullard‘s journey with World Wrestling Entertainment as he “competed” on the WWE NXT television program created to find the company’s next breakout star. Though he was eliminated early on, Bullard’s background as a football player and master’s degree recipient from the University of Florida was played up heavily by the producers/announcers; he even did a Gator Chomp at the top of the entrance ramp before entering the ring. As his in-ring character Titus O’Neil, Bullard returns to Gainesville on Friday, Oct. 29 as he competes with current and future WWE superstars in a Florida Championship Wrestling event at the Alachua County Fairgrounds. A member of UF’s Hall of Fame, O’Neil was also a Student Body Vice President in 2000.

11 Comments

  1. Drew 4 Orange & Blue says:

    Crowder has some good points…the NFL is over reacting to ESPN and the media showing these hits hundreds of times…the hit on DeSean Jackson was completely textbook and legal and he gets fined….ridiculous!!!! The NFL is on top of the world form a sports perspective but this is one aspect where they have gone too far and if they keep going down this road it will hurt their overall product.

  2. DCgator says:

    Crowder couldn’t wrap a guy up to save his life, so does he really have any option but to continue looking for the knock-out hit?

    I’m sure he’d be singing a different tune if Hines Ward or some other headhunting opportunist laid him out and paralyzed him (just sayin’).

  3. Um…Crowder’s a very good tackler. Not sure what you’re talking about.

    And here’s Crowder on Hines Ward yesterday:

    “[He] take[s] cheap shots, yeah. Receivers are mostly soft and happy to get out of the way, but he’ll take a cheap shot on you. Which gets us right back to the thing, if he takes a cheap shot and breaks a guy’s jaw (a Ward block broke the jaw of Bengals rookie linebacker Keith Rivers in 2008), did he get fined for breaking the guy’s jaw? [He did not get fined]. If he break’s a guy’s jaw, it’s pretty devastating.”

  4. brlgator says:

    @ drew for orange and blue

    Although I agree that the NFL is maybe over reacting here there is something you should understand, the hit on desean jackson was 100% illegal and against the rules of football. the helmet to helmet contact rule has 0 intent involved its a strict liability policy the rule even says that if the hit is legal but in the end the defensive players helmet or shoulder pad end up hitting the recievers head then its a penalty. the only difference is now the nfl says we are actually going to suspend first time offenders and more seriously regulate the helmet hits but according to the nfl rules the hit on desean jackson was illegal

  5. Gatorbuc15 says:

    I agree with Adam in saying that Crowder is a good tackler. He can wrap up with the best of them.

  6. DCgator says:

    I thought I remembered watching Crowder whiff on more than a couple sure tackles last season. If not, my bad.

    I saw that quote after I posted (what are the odds), and I do completely agree with Channing about the unfair preferential treatment of offensive players by the League. I was hoping the new rule would help address that inequality by making Hines Ward-style cheap shots illegal as well. Channing seems to disagree. Hopefully it will be applied across the board.

  7. npgator says:

    Dolphins defense is thrilled to have Crowder back on the field and it showed.

  8. Drew 4 Orange & Blue says:

    The defender clearly lead with his shoulder and not his head…that’s what I saw

  9. Wingtee says:

    At Thaddus is actually making contact now in cometition. A classic ” looks like Tarzan plays like Jane”

  10. brlgator says:

    The rule says u can’t lead with ur helmet shoulder or even ur forearm. Its not a rule change just an increase in enforcement

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