Rules apply even to people you don't like

After watching Ben Roethlisberger get smacked around for the second week in a row, I completely agree with the Steelers that the officials are ignoring questionable-to-outright illegal hits on him and other Steelers, for whatever reason - maybe the team's reputation for toughness means the refs are unconsciously giving opposing teams more leeway than they should.

Last Sunday vs. the Ravens, tight end Heath Miller was damn near decapitated on a tackle that looked like a pretty textbook "defenseless receiver" violation to me (and to Cris Collinsworth) - no flag. Earlier in the game, Haloti Ngata swiped Roethlisberger's facemask, breaking the QB's nose. (The surgeon who operated on Ben this week said the bones looked like corn flakes. Thanks for that, doc. No, really.) Ngata didn't quite grab the facemask, but it was still a clear blow to the QB's head. Two of them, actually - one up front and one on the back. No flag. (Though Ngata did draw a $15,000 fine from the NFL, and Jameel McClain got $40,000 for the hit on Miller.)

Roethlisberger spent most of Sunday's game against the Bengals either on his back or on the way there, including a couple of hits that should've cracked a rib or two. No flags. When he complained to the officials both last week and this week, Roethlisberger says he was told "he was just trying to tackle you."

Oh, well, if THAT's the standard. Let's just start diving directly at the players' testicles. Hey, I was just trying to tackle him!

Here's where I'm tempted - given who we're talking about here - to do what a lot of people leaving comments on blogs and news articles are doing, and snark that Roethlisberger's just getting what's been coming to him. Oh, Ben, you poor thing. It really is terrible when someone hurts you physically, and the very people who are supposed to protect you just blow off your complaints with some BS about how there's nothing they can do, even though there's a rule RIGHT THERE for them to enforce. No, I have no idea what that's like. (What were you wearing, by the way?)

Here's where we need to remove the personalities involved from the issue. Because snarking doesn't fix anything. If the league is going to crow about improving player safety, than it needs to enforce its rules for all players. Refs are one thing, because they're making calls in real time and are bound to miss some things. But it's blazing BS for the NFL - which has plenty of time to review tape of questionable plays - to single out, say, James Harrison while ignoring similar hits on Harrison's own teammates.

It undermines the integrity of the game when the rules don't apply to same players or teams. More importantly, in this case this laxity could get someone killed.