Ok, I bow to no one in my frustration with targeting calls, especially the one on Gotsis. There's now good evidence, imho, that we are seeing "Italian soccer" drills that are training players on how to draw targeting penalties. That's really pretty bad news and I don't know how to combat it; as GBS said, "Fair play is a spectator's virtue, not a participant's."
But …
I also recently saw a Charlie Rose show about concussions and their consequences. I have seldom seen anything that changed my mind on a question as quickly. As the panel of medical experts on the show outlined, concussions - and not just in football; basketball, lacrosse, and soccer too - are serious injuries with long standing effects and the more you have the worse it gets. Anything we can do to reduce them is called for. This is especially the case since the injury itself is undetectable with existing diagnostic techniques - the whole thing depends on self-reports - and there are no drugs to treat the injury yet. Better equipment would help a lot as would the quick death of the "suck it up" mentality concerning head injuries. Another thing of real concern to a guy with two young granddaughters = women and girls are much more susceptible to concussions then men are.
Originally, I thought the Tech staff was being pretty conservative about holding Shamire out for two weeks after he reported his symptoms. Now I find myself wondering whether they let him back on the field too soon; I'm sure he told them he was ok and wanted his job back from Joe.
Here's the link to the show:
http://www.charlierose.com/watch/60655099
Everybody should watch this, especially if you have a daughter(s).