Clay Matthews Attacks the NFL: Is There a Double Standard on Player Safety?

Player safety is a phrase that has been so often repeated in the NFL people are starting to dream about it. But if you ask Green Bay Packers linebacker about player safety, it’s a tumultuous nightmare that he feels is threatening his livelihood and the livelihood of his fellow defensive-mates around the NFL.

In last night’s MNF showdown, Texans linebacker Brian Cushing was on the receiving end of a chop block by New York Jets lineman Matt Slauson. The chop block wasn’t accidental too as video replay showed a blatant intent on chopping Cushing knees — and the only logical conclusion to this move would be to knock Cushing out of the game and try to weaken a stout Texans defense.

This calls into question two major story lines in the NFL: one being player safety but another being the bounty-gate scandal, which relates to player safety. There is no word from the NFL that they are looking into the incident which clearly can be interpreted as intent to injure, a buzz word that encapsulated the scandal on the Bayou.

Clay Matthews, who’s no stranger to calling out the NFL this season, isn’t ready to call this Bounty-gate New York, but he is calling a double standard on the league’s crusade to clean up dirty hits. The Pro Bowler took to Twitter during last night’s game to vent his frustrations that the league doesn’t care about the defense’s well-being.

This is a dual issue for Matthews as not only does he have a point about the NFL and their over protection of offensive players, but Cushing was a teammate of Matthews during his time at USC. But it’s very hard to ignore the point Matthews raises with his angry tweets. This time it’s not about who shoved who in the endzone or what call should have gone which way.

This is about players safety — or so we thought it was.