NFL bans hip drop tackle
doubledragon
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The NFL is certainly going to look different next season with the hip drop tackle being banned, a lot of NFL players and former players are upset about this.
What is a hip-drop tackle? Explaining the NFL's decision to ban the controversial defensive play
In the eyes of the NFL's competition committee, hips don't lie.
The league officially moved to ban the hip-drop tackle Monday, with the committee voting unanimously to remove it from the game.
As with any other rule change, there will be an adjustment period — one that typically brings more controversy along with it. Regardless, by the time Week 1 kicks off in early September, everyone will know the rule, for better or worse.
Here is everything you need to know about the hip-drop tackle, including why the league moved to ban it and what the penalty is for it moving forward.
What is a hip-drop tackle?
A hip-drop tackle is when a defender wraps up an offensive player on the side or from behind, becoming dead-weight while often landing on the player's legs. The technique has become popular as players get faster and stronger, giving smaller defenders a chance in a league that continues to award more advantages to offenses.
"What's happening on the hip-drop is the defender is encircling tackling the runner and then swinging their weight and falling on the side of their leg, which is their ankle or their knee," Rich McKay, the chairman of the NFL's competition committee, said.
McKay called the hip-drop a cousin of the horse-collar tackle, saying at the league meetings in October that they see "an injury more or less every week in the regular season on the hip-drop."
The play is officially defined in Rule 12, Section 2, Article 18 as:
ARTICLE 18. HIP-DROP TACKLE. It is a foul if a player uses the following technique to bring a runner to the ground:
(a) grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms; and
(b) unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg(s) at or below the knee.
Penalty: For a Hip-Drop Tackle: Loss of 15 yards and an automatic first down.
Calls to ban the defensive play ramped up following a major injury to Mark Andrews in Week 11, one that cost him the rest of the regular season. Other notable players like Tyreek Hill, Rhamondre Stevenson and Geno Smith also suffered injuries as a result of the play.
League executive Jeff Miller said the hip-drop increases the risk of injury by about 25 times more than a standard tackle. According to Miller via NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, they saw 230 instances of the swivel hip-drop tackle last season. Only 15 players missed time due to injury because of it.
While the NFL says the rule change is in the interest of safety, not everyone is in favor of it. In a statement released via X on March 20, the NFL Players Association said they opposed a ban.
Players, both current and former, took to social media to express their displeasure with the change.
What is the penalty for a hip-drop tackle?
Just like the horse-collar, flags for the hip-drop tackle will be 15 yards and an automatic first down. Expect more fines than penalties in the early stages as teams work to remove the technique from the game, per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.
"This will be a hard one to call on the field, you have to see every element of it," McKay said. "We want to make it a rule so we can deal on the discipline during the week."
For a sport that has been defined by safety concerns and penalty debates for years, it remains to be seen whether the NFL has successfully walked along the fine line. We can be certain, however, that this won't be the last we hear of the hip-drop tackle.
Comments
The NFLPA official statement.
I don't see at all why the NFLPA would give a dam about this?
So the runners will rush for many more yards this upcoming season, and the defense will give-up more points. The players will still get paid accordingly, so why should they care?
Here are some of the statements from the side that oppose the ban.
Julian Edelman see both sides of it, but can sympathize with defenders.
There's going to be a time when the game is on the line and it comes down to something like this, how is the defender supposed to make this tackle? This isn't just a job for players, there's more to it than money, these players want to win games, win championships.
idk about any of you guys, but the sports i grew up enamored of are a hard watch now. it's a money grab, straight up. offense sells. protect those who generate points at all costs, even if it means prostituting the sport. there is next to no defense in the NBA nowadays, and football isn't far behind with the implementation of crap like this. you couldn't pay me enough to play defense in today's NFL. it's becoming such an eyesore that i can honestly foresee a day when i won't feel compelled to watch any of it
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
I guess this is how defenders are going to have to start tackling.
Because half the players are defensive players. Between this, targeting, and the defenseless rules other than a love tap shove out of bounds refs can basically throw a flag on any tackle they want to
Wisconsin 2-6 against the SEC since 2007
Yeah, I don't like it, the NFL is getting ridiculous.
It's a profession. If I'm a defensive player getting paid the same amount of money for a harsh tackle or a love tap, and the coach is happy either way, then I don't give a chit either way.
If the final score is 127-92, and the coach tells me and the team that we did a fine defensive job, that's good enough for me. Especially when I'm depositing my fat paycheck.
Defensive players wont get paid the same. Their stats will drop and they will be viewed as easily replaceable players like what has happened to RBs. The NFL wants offense like all the other sports do and are making rules to make it easier to score.
All the rule changes are designed to increase scoring. I do like the switch to the XFL rules for the kickoff though. Kickoffs were a waste of time just watching guys kick it out of the endzone for touch backs every time
If the final score average starts being 127-92 no one is paying defensive players anything and will just keep replacing them with rookie contracts every year
Wisconsin 2-6 against the SEC since 2007
Just another rule to ruin the game
I am not a fan of this
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
To my thinking this is a good rule that really needs to be in place. It will directly affect the number of ankle and lower leg injuries while probably not affecting the overall game very much.
The "hip-drop" to me is just a technique that has grown out of the trend for coaches, maybe as far back as pee wee and high school football, to not teach players how to properly tackle. Sure, an excuse can be made that as players have gotten bigger they have become harder to tackle, but that doesn't mean sound, proven technique should be abandoned. Probably the most common form of tackling taught today is the roll-block tackle, nobody uses old school sound tackling techniques which mean wrapping a player. It just doesn't get taught to young players so it isn't used. Watch a game closely and you'll see what I mean. Me and the guys I watch with have been talking about it for decades now.