Canceling the Hall of Fame game out of concern for player safety, especially describing the paint job as Schefter did, was totally understandable.
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While the National Football League is making strides in player safety, they still have a ways to go until they are protecting players in all ways, not just those related to head injuries.
Hall of Fame game cancelled for poor field conditions: An emotional and invigorating Hall of Fame weekend came to a grinding halt Sunday night when the Packers-Colts game was canceled because of poor field conditions. The paint melted, and there was concern players’ cleats would get stuck in the resulting mire. As overall NFL-fan disappointments go, traveling to Canton for a meaningless game that wasn’t actually played is far less disappointing than, for example, seeing their favorite team fail to make the playoffs or (even worse) losing a playoff game or (far worse) losing the Super Bowl.
There’s no disputing the decision Sunday night: The NFL had to cancel the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.
So neither the Packers nor the Indianapolis Colts should be affected by the cancellation of Sunday’s preseason opener, making the decision to call off the game a no-brainer. Thus the Indianapolis Colts and Green Bay Packers will play four only preseason games, like every other team.
The contest was cancelled about 30 minutes later. Both teams were anxious about player safety as crews worked feverishly to spray solvent on the area around the midfield logo. You’ve heard me many, many times talk about our values of commitment, integrity, courage, respect, and excellence. “Took NFL to task over the situation and now player safety wins”.
“There was a lot of conversation but, at the end of the day, you’ve got to make a decision, and the decision was made for player safety”, McCarthy said.
“You really feel (for) our fans”, Packers President Mark Murphy said. It was just incredible to see the green and gold. They sat watching highlights of Favre’s speech and of Friday night’s concert featuring Tim McGraw before they were told about the game’s cancellation.
Murphy said the renovations the Hall of Fame made to the field were all tested and approved beforehand.
Something did happen on that same field a year ago, to Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Shaun Suisham. The Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Shaun Suisham tore the ACL in his non-kicking knee during the game.
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Yes these fans have traded last year’s vacation destination to the choice their wife wanted due to the promise of coming to the hall this year and seeing the game along with some of the game’s greatest players be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
