Sounds to me like the "ground can't cause a fumble" rule is directly related to the spearing epidemic.

Believe it or not, I'm often diffident about expressing football opinions on our board because I'm acutely aware that I didn't actually play the sport at any point in my life. I think there are certain appreciations of how well or poorly other guys play football that come only when you have tried to do what they're trying to do.

However, I did grow up playing rugby union football, which is an ancestor of American football that even to to this day relies on next to no protection of major bones or tissues in the bodies of the players. Back when I used to play, the only protection used outside of groin boxes was a headband or perhaps a leather helmet whose purpose was not to soften the impact of head collisions but to keep ears from being torn off inadvertently in the middle of a scrum.

With no armor available, great emphasis was placed on correct form in tackling. This was something I paid particular attention to because while I was taller than most players I was also much skinnier. I needed to know where best to hit a player, what part of me would make contact, and how to wrap him up and bring him to ground while causing myself the least amount of pain.

And it didn't take much study or practice to figure these things out. Get below his center of gravity, tuck your head out of the way, hit the ball carrier in the lower thigh with your shoulder, wrap your arms around his legs and keep your hands close in and keep moving forward if at all possible.

If you did this properly, neither you nor the ball carrier would suffer an undue amount of pain but you had done your job and the ball was on the ground (in rugby the carrier is required to release the ball when he hits the ground even if it is not dislodged by the tackler).

I see no reason why NFL players cannot make tackles in similar fashion and still give them an element of sizzle and woo.

Time for the league to stop being so lazy in its imaging of this sport.