NFL Approves Ban of the Hip Drop Tackle

[Chicoman]

So, don't touch the hips, dive for the back of the legs only? That right? That going to help?

Just said don't lift yourself and drop all your weight on the back of a ball carriers legs.

 

[Gustavus Adolphus]

My prediction is that this will be called very inconsistently. Bold, I know.

I said this last week. Unless the eye in the sky is the one making this call it's going to be amazingly frustrating for all involved.

 

[Alfredo6969]

I saw the statement that there were 230 identified infractions of this new rule last season alone.

If those were enforced it would've been the 4th-most called penalty of last year, behind only False Starts, Offensive Holding, and DPI.

And it would have been more 15-yard penalties than Unnecessary Roughness (126) and Roughing the Passer (93) combined.

Yuck...

Stats don't lie unless it Boyle Heights LA bodies so why don't they just make the return a flag football play instead of calling 15 yards on tackles these homies just out there to bring down the returner so if it all about the safety and security of one guy catching the ball put flags on his azz and he'll be safe or just get rid of returns all 2gether

 

[hebs]

Dumb… bet they don’t vote to lower the cost to watch, inline with lowering the quality of the product.

 

[didshereallysaythat]

I am curious to see what the referee signal motion will be when this is called. Will it be a quick thrusting motion of his hips?

 

[ILoveDick]

I don't think this is a big deal at all. I don't see it that much, and it should be pretty easy to refrain from doing. Don't tackle a guy like a stripper on a pole.

 

[jsu34]

55 from Cincy is a serial offender. That's his preferred method of tackling.

I suspect this rule is a knee-jerk reaction to his tackle that knocked out Mark Andrews.

 

[Rustysurf83]

Bowers should be skyrocketing up draft boards with this rule

 

[Bears4Ever_34]

It's incredible to me how out of touch the NFL is on these rule implementations with the the rest of the world. It's almost quite literally only the owners and supposed "competition committee" who thinks adding more rules on top of more rules is making the game better.

Every year we ***** about how much worse the officiating is getting, and then the NFL is like, "Oh, you don't like that? Well here's another extremely subjective rule we can shove down your throat that might potentially ruin your team's season if it's called at a critical time."

If they're going to continue to do this, you have to get rid of the 15 yard penalty all together. Just make everything 5 or 10 yards. Pretty soon offenses are going to be starting at the 50 yard line anyways. There are too many infractions that benefit the offense because of how impossible it is to tackle anymore.

 

[JoJoBoxer]

I'd hate to play defense. It's been getting harder and harder to play defense in the NFL. This doesn't help.

I understand that by their metrics, this tackle is like 20x more likely to result in an injury, but damn.

The big thing is not to aim for the legs when falling down. You can unbalance a ball carrier by falling straight back (the fulcrum and the bigger lever) better than swiveling and then falling straight at someone's legs.

Yes, it will have to be taught out of players minds but that specific type of hip drop was taught into players minds by rugby players.

I used lots of hip drops and a lot of people used hip drops on me and none of us were ever injured because no one would aim for the other players legs.

Not all hip drops have become illegal, only where you swivel and fall straight down at a players legs.

In the long run, good for the game.

How would you feel if the Bears drafted Caleb and, during the Hall of Fame game, some random defender threw an illegal hip drop on Caleb and knocked him out for the whole season?


Pittsburg would again fleece the Bears by trading Fields back to Chicago for a 2025 2nd rounder.

 

[JoJoBoxer]

I wonder if they will differentiate as they did in rugby.

if it save our rbs, wrs and qbs from lower body injuries, so be it.

It is exactly what the NFL has proposed. If you control the player, whip around and fall directly onto someone's feet, it is illegal.

Whipping around or swiveling creates a circular motion where you and the other player end up extremely close to each other. Once you fall straight down, chances of the falling onto the other players legs are high.

As @94SupraTT said, you can whip the player around and, with feet set, throw him into the ground. You can also grab the player and fall back, keeping your body far from the players legs.

One thing where refs are going to have to diminish is their calling a penalty for whipping a player to the ground in a WWE type of tackle. These are not dangerous because the player has enough padding to lessen their contact with the ground.

 

[JoJoBoxer]

The defender cannot land on the QB and now cannot hip drop one, how are they supposed to tackle now?

They can hip drop him. Please read the one type of hip drop that has become illegal.

 

[Gustavus Adolphus]

As some know, I referee football at the high school level. I just realized that I will have to hear coaches and parents yelling about why I'm not calling the hip drop tackle.

 

[Insidiuz]

I'd hate to play defense. It's been getting harder and harder to play defense in the NFL. This doesn't help.

I understand that by their metrics, this tackle is like 20x more likely to result in an injury, but damn.

Facts. You’re paid millions to play a kid’s game with the chance of injury ever-present. But, we must overprotect to the detriment of the game, you know, like bare knuckle fights are not allowed in hockey and pro boxers must wear headgear in all matches. Oh wait...

 

[Insidiuz]

I am curious to see what the referee signal motion will be when this is called. Will it be a quick thrusting motion of his hips?

Or perhaps he juts his right hip way out and slaps his ass

 

[TL1961]

Subjective calls on a difficult to describe move. What could go wrong?

See: Pass Interference, Roughing the QB, etc.

 

[TL1961]

It's incredible to me how out of touch the NFL is on these rule implementations with the the rest of the world. It's almost quite literally only the owners and supposed "competition committee" who thinks adding more rules on top of more rules is making the game better.

Every year we ***** about how much worse the officiating is getting, and then the NFL is like, "Oh, you don't like that? Well here's another extremely subjective rule we can shove down your throat that might potentially ruin your team's season if it's called at a critical time."

If they're going to continue to do this, you have to get rid of the 15 yard penalty all together. Just make everything 5 or 10 yards. Pretty soon offenses are going to be starting at the 50 yard line anyways. There are too many infractions that benefit the offense because of how impossible it is to tackle anymore.

NFL players and former players have taken to Twitter and it seems to be running about 10-1 against this rule.