If you thought the NFL’s newest rules for roughing-the-passer and whatever the heck a catch is were hard to interpret, boy, do I have awful news!
During Divisional Weekend, two critical injuries to the Dallas Cowboys’ Tony Pollard and the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes have put the seemingly staple “hip-drop” tackle in the spotlight. Pollard would suffer an ankle sprain and a broken leg after being brought down in this manner. A day earlier, a scrambling Mahomes would sustain a painful ankle injury of his own as a host of defenders tackled him in essentially the same way. (Mind you, this is an ankle ailment that could still bother the Kansas City superstar in Super Bowl 57.)
As a result, the NFL’s Chief Medical Officer Allen Sills is apparently professing that there will be a coming earnest look at the hip-drop tackle’s place in pro football:
The #NFL is planning to have an "active conversation" this offseason about possibly banning the “hip drop” tackles, according to NFL's CMO Allen Sills. pic.twitter.com/9g66NULgby
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) February 4, 2023
Given that defenders sometimes have no recourse but to use their weight to bring down ball carriers — especially when chasing them from behind — NFL players past and present were understandably livid by this potential change. After all, it’s already pretty challenging to play defense in a game where offensive skill players seemingly have the board tilted in their favor. It’s hard enough having to consider whether you’re putting your entire body weight on a quarterback while bringing them to the ground; now you have to think twice about what you’re doing with your hips when a guy is breaking free into the open field? It’s just an absurd concept to think about.
If the NFL were really concerned with innovative changes for player safety, one idea would be banning field turf as a significant first step. You know, the turf that players like Pollard and Mahomes got their legs caught in while being tackled. Alas, I don’t think anyone reasonable would ever accuse the NFL of making intelligent, thoughtful additions and subtractions to pro football.