The Horror Tackle

- Maxi Rodriguez

38 months later, the effects are still apparent. His pace less explosive than it once was, his touch a bit less controlled, his overall game more contingent on craft than outright beating his marker. 38 months later, one-time Arsenal prodigy Eduardo da Silva is thriving in the Ukranian Premier League, but things could have been different. Things should have been different.

The headlines repeat themselves every year: “Young starlet to miss rest of season after cruel challenge.” It’s grown commonplace to the point that each new horror tackle and subsequent career-threatening injury is met with a collective groan followed by a listless shrug of the shoulders. “It’s a part of the game” we all say. We explain that, “he’s not that type of player.” We take solace in the fact that while, “the challenge was rash, ultimately there was no intent.”

And that’s typically true. It’s the rare footballer who purposely seeks to injure his opponent. Rather than malice, most horror tackles come about from pure recklessness and lack of judgment.

Some would claim that the previous statement absolves players from any culpability in the injuries they cause. If they had no intention of injuring their opponent, then what more can we ask for than a red card and a three-match ban? A temporary suspension, however, offers little consolation to the Aaron Ramsey’s and Eduardo’s of the world. Nor does it offer an adequate punishment to prevent similarly heinous tackles in the future.

The question of punishment has nothing to do with intent. Malice or competitive spirit aside, a horror tackle is a horror tackle, and the football community has a duty to prevent similar injuries. Unfortunately, FA’s worldwide focus on the short-term, using bans and suspensions as temporary hindrances, rather than as truly corrective measures. The hard-man and the hard-tackle is a tolerated remnant of the past. What message is sent to footballers when a player is suspended 3 games for ending someone’s career?

The lack of consequences for a horror tackle tacitly encourages recklessness. With no long-term threat to their career or income, players freely lunge in to tackles, reach for balls they have no chance of winning, and go in hard on opposition players when there’s no context for aggression in the passage of play.

But professionals are professionals, and footballers know their odds of success when going in for a tackle. A culture of recklessness encourages misplaced aggression, malice, and oafishness. With impunity, players are allowed to go in hard, time and time again, without thought, without consideration for the careers’ of the peers. While hard challenges typically result in won balls or inconsequential knocks, every so often, there’s that horrific injury.

While it might be too late for Eduardo, a player who should have played in Euro 2008, and who should still be leading Arsenal’s attack. And while injuries to Aaron Ramsey, Stuart Holden, and now, Steve Zakuani are past the point of avoidance,decisive actions can work towards the prevention of future injuries. Severe punishments must meet those players responsible for horrific injuries, whether or not there was intent. Only by sending a message to footballers that recklessness will not be tolerated, can we hope to change the culture of the game and compel current players to take a moment to consider their actions.

Football is a game of instants; 90 minutes compacted into brief flashes that tell the stories of individual games. If players take an extra moment to consider their actions, who knows how many injuries could be prevented.