FOOTBALL IS A COLLISION SPORT.

A month ago, the Green Bay Packers were in a position to secure first place in the Black and Blue Division.  There are worse ways to lose a game in Denver than have a very good defensive back intercept a first-down pass intended as a knock-out score after the defense records a three-and-out to open the second half.  Later, as Denver rallied, Packer defender Micah Parsons suffered a season-ending injury.  The anterior cruciate ligament gets stronger only in geologic time, while player speed and mass increase in a generation.

As we posted our final Advent meditation for the Festive Season, we were anticipating a showdown between the Packers and Bears with that first place being held by the winner with two games to play.  But for some foolish penalties on the defense in what could have been the final Bear possession and yet another failure of the special teams to cover an on-side kick that everyone in the stadium knew was coming, the Packers might have had that division lead.

Earlier in the game, though, Bear defender Austin Booker committed his second roughing the passer penalty of the first half, putting starting quarterback Jordan Love in the concussion protocol.  Bear fans behaved, well, like Bear fans.

“The celebrations. The smirks. The chest-pounding,” [Ronika Stone] wrote. “As if injuring a quarterback was something to be proud of.”

She urged fans to look beyond the scoreboard.

“If you want to understand what really happened tonight, don’t look at the score.

Look at the reactions after that hit.”

The Bears have always played dirty.  The game took place in Chicago, and Mr Booker paid more of a fine to the league than a mugger caught coshing somebody on the L would have paid.

Will anything change as a consequence of her lament?

Years from now, the box score will still read Bears 22, Packers 16.

But this night may be remembered for something else entirely:

The moment a wife said what millions saw.

The moment silence became unacceptable.

And the moment thirteen words forced the league to confront a truth it prefers not to face.

Because if football is going to stay brutal,

then protection must stay consistent.

And if it doesn’t, the warnings will keep coming.

Perhaps Ms Stone is calling attention to something many parents have understood for some time.  Five seasons ago, we called attention to the dwindling feedstock of high school footballers entering the college-to-pro pipeline.  Late in his life, Rush Limbaugh inadvertently discovered young men shying away from the gladiator economy that organized football has become.  In upscale neighborhoods, parents probably evaluate the risks of their spawn trying out for football less favorably.  And perhaps Ms Stone, who is expecting a baby girl, was contemplating the possibility of father Jordan Love's body deteriorating or his brain turning to mush just as that girl launches as an adult.

After that injury report, the final two losses of the season, with Baltimore turning Derrick Henry loose to run and the defense aggravating a shoulder injury to backup quarterback Malik Willis and scoring enough points that the absence of any Packer punts didn't matter; and the Packers effectively starting the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh team against the Vikings, might not matter as much in the scheme of things.