The NFL made multiple changes to its rules prior to the 2024 season. The biggest point of emphasis has been changing the way kickoffs are done, but the most controversial has been eliminating the hip-drop tackle.
When asked about his thoughts on the NFL’s decision to ban the hip drop tackle, Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh expressed his happiness with the fact that it will no longer be a factor, saying that it needed to go.
“As far as the hip-drop tackle [and] the challenge of [teaching] tackling, I don’t even understand the question. The hip-drop tackle … When did you ever hear about the hip-drop tackle until like two years ago, three years ago, right? That’s because it was discovered, probably, in rugby and started being executed as a standalone technique. It’s a three-part movement, [and] you’ve got to execute that play. You’ve got to be close enough to that ball carrier to actually get him around the hips, pull him close to yourself, swing your hips through and drop on the back of his legs. If you’re that close, wrap him up, tackle him and take him to the ground, like Ray Lewis used to do and everybody did for 100 years before that. But you’re talking about a tackle that the ball carrier has no method of escape from; he can’t escape. So, when you drop down on the back of his legs, it’s a mass … And it’s 25 times more likely to have a serious injury. So, it’s really a bad play, and it needed to be out. And guys are going to tackle just fine without the quote-unquote hip-drop tackle, because they tackled just fine without it for 100 years of football before that, when you never saw it, really. So, that’s my answer to that.”
Played safety should be and is a big consideration when talking about football, and the NFL continually takes steps to try to make the game safer. However, it is becoming increasingly impossible to play defense with rules coming in so fast, which has led to outrage among current and former defensive players.