New York Giants co-owner John Mara was in attendance at the league meetings on Monday. Among the big topics at the league meetings were the rule changes for the upcoming season, which includes the hip-drop tackle rule.
Mara, a member of the competition committee and an advocate for player safety, spoke out about the rule change:
With #Giants president and CEO John Mara for @nflnetwork on the hip-drop tackle (“It was a tactic we had to get out of the game”), the kickoff proposal (“If we can twist some arms tonight, maybe we’ll take another vote”) and his confidence in Daniel Jones. pic.twitter.com/hgHUXihvS9
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 25, 2024
“I think it certainly will, it was a tactic that we had to get out of the game.” Mara told Mike Garafolo. “The injuries were too severe and there were too many of them and in my experience being on the competition committee, the players have never been happy with the safety-inspired rule changes; they always feel like it makes the defensive players’ jobs that much tougher, and it does. But at the end of the day it’s going to protect guys from injuries and it’s just a tactic we had to get out of there. These players are the greatest athletes in the world and every time there’s a rules change, they adapt. They figure out how to tackle the ball carrier without the horse collar, without the helmet to helmet, now they are going to have to do it without the hip-drop maneuver.”
Mara reiterated that the tackle was something they needed to get out of the game due to the injury risk included in such tackles. The rule change has caused quite the controversy this offseason and will continue to do so headed into the 2024 season.
The league also has focus on a new creative kickoff rule and Mara was also asked about that:
“I am in favor of making the change, I think right now we have a play that is just a ceremonial play. You look at the Super Bowl where you had 13 kickoffs and no returns and we don’t want that. We also don’t want the old kickoff because the rate of injury was too high so I think we need to try something; there is a lot of fear about what the unintended consequences will be but we still have a little bit of work to do.”
The new hip-drop tackle rule is going to be a hot topic in the early part of the 2024 season and it will be interesting to see the effect it has on the game.
With every rule change the NFL makes to kickoffs, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility for kickoffs to eventually be eliminated from the game.
Mara seems to have a clear interest in rule changes that make the game safer.