I always laugh at the occasional Aussie sports fan (and I do mean occasional) who claims that American football players are "soft" because they wear pads.

The reality is that the padding only increases the ferocity, allowing for vicious, but sometimes reckless - and careless - tackles and hits. As someone once said, American football is not a contact sport, it's a collision sport.

Never was that more evident than this past weekend, when a particularly brutal spate of hard hits has the NFL facing a real conundrum.

The league says it doesn't want to be seen as a glorifying violence, yet that's exactly what much of the public and the media expect - and love.

Looking back at the weekend's action, you might have thought you were watching an unsanctioned and dodgy MMA card.

Atlanta's Dunta Robinson hit Philadelphia's Desean Jackson so hard that both sustained concussions.

New England's Brandon Meriweather launched himself, helmet-first at Baltimore's Todd Heap, who said afterward, "It was one of those hits that shouldn't happen."

And Pittsburgh's James Harrison, a linebacker known as one of the NFL's hardest hitters, delivered two helmet-to-helmet blows in the Cleveland game, one on Josh Cribbs, who was concussed, and another on Mohamed Massaquoi.

The league responded quickly, handing Harrison a $75,000 fine, and hitting Meriweather and Robinson with $50,000 penalties. But none of the players was suspended.

And while many find these sorts of injuries appalling, plenty of others believe if you take hard hitting away from the NFL, it will turn into "touch football."

This all comes at an interesting time for the NFL, on two different levels.

One, there has been a lot of debate by medical professionals about the lasting effects of hard hits on the brains of former NFL players.

And two, as we've seen with Aussie Rules and both rugby codes, questions will be asked about whether parents - especially mothers - will continue to let their sons play football.

The latter issue, while certainly less dramatic than the concussion research, is arguably more important from a marketing and cultural standpoint.

You may not like American football, but if you watch television - Friday Night Lights - or movies - Any Given Sunday - you probably understand what an important role football plays in everyday life.

American boys grow up hearing things like "stick your helmet in there," "knock his block off," even "kill the quarterback," though that last one, luckily, isn't taken literally.

You not only accept that hitting (and getting hit) is part of the game, you encourage it as a coach, and even revel in it as a fan.

And that's where the current conflict comes into play. You want to see a big hit, but you don't want to see anyone hurt.

The NFL knows it has to do something, but it may not want to be seen as softening a sport that is so downright macho.

Over the years, the NFL has not shied away from promoting big hits and big hitters. Some of the best NFL Films documentaries are features on legendary hard men like Ray Nitschke, Dick Butkus and Jack Lambert.

Moreover, the game is littered with players who prided themselves on dishing out punishment.

Shawne Merriman, who played linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, was given the nickname "Lights Out" in high school, after he allegedly knocked out four opponents in one game.

Longtime Baltimore Colts linebacker Mike Curtis once said he played football because "it's the only place you can hit people and get away with it."

And in an extreme case, former Oakland Raiders defensive back Jack Tatum, who died in July age 61, was nicknamed "The Assassin." Tatum was notorious for his big-time collisions, and in 1978, hit New England's Darryl Stingley so hard that Stingley was paralysed from the chest down.

There's no doubt it's a brutal sport. But it's also the most popular sport in the United States, by a wide margin. In fact on Tuesday, a soporific NFL game between unglamourous Jacksonville and Tennessee outrated a superb baseball playoff game that featured Texas pitcher Cliff Lee stifling the New York Yankees.

So given that scenario how do NFL bigwigs - with administrators of college, high school and youth football holding them accountable - react to horrific helmet hits?

My gut feeling is they'll hand out more fines, then add suspensions for repeat offenders like Harrison. They'll work through the NFLPA with an education program and then team up with youth coaches to try to convince parents that ultimate safety measures are in place.

The NFL knows it has to make a statement. But it also knows that American boys won't stop playing football.