Bills GM Doug Whaley backtracks on controversial comments

Tuesday wasn't a good day for the Buffalo Bills on a few fronts.

First, the team issued a draconian and fairly ridiculous policy on what the media can report at its open practices, which was roundly panned as spin control from a paranoid organization. Then general manager Doug Whaley made some eye-opening comments on WGR 550 Radio on his views of the dangers of football.

Asked about whether Bills wideout Sammy Watkins is injury-prone, Whaley dismissed that notion for the most part but launched into a bigger discussion about the nature of the game as a whole.

"This is the game of football," Whaley said, via the Buffalo News. "Injuries are part of it. It's a violent game that I personally don't think humans are supposed to play."

That's the kind of bookmark-worthy, echo-chamber statement that makes the NFL office cringe mightily. The league already has been taken to task for its approach to concussion research, CTE and pushing the proper agendas for the safety of the game.

Well, either someone got to Whaley or he realized what he said might cause a firestorm. He issued a statement on Wednesday clarifying his comments.

Whaley's initial comments should be considered broadly for a moment because he played college football and certainly has credible perspective on what the physical toll does to a man. But we also must note, had Whaley said something to the effect of "... I personally don't think God intended humans to play football" or the like, it's possible that the firestorm would not nearly have been as big.

That latter statement would appear to be 100 percent true, by the way. Human bodies were not meant to crash into each other, full bore, at high rates of speed — certainly not with the amount of mass that elite athletes have been able to gain and maintain over the past 20-30 years. We're not built, for instance, like rams, which has been blessed with a shock absorber of sorts in their bodies.

So that's why there's protection and safety measures and advanced studies on equipment, so that players who willingly make the choice to play a dangerous sport can be protected to the highest levels possible. Where the NFL has veered itself off track is to dismiss or obscure important medical studies on the long-term effects of head and trauma and multiple concussions and sub-concussive hits. In turn, that has prevented some of the good the league has done to prevent these things from getting its proper due. It's the NFL's own fault, really.

That's why what Whaley said initially, which very likely is true, resonates so deeply. This is a league in quiet crisis over the future of the game and whether parents will let their children play the game when they read things like this, from a former player who watches and scouts the game for a living.

Whaley was believed to be on thinning ice up in Buffalo with the way the team has gone the past few years under his watch. Even though he most likely was spitting some real talk while doing so, his initial comments didn't help his standing.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm