The NFL’s 32 teams all agreed to get rid of the “swivel hip-drop tackle” at their annual league meeting in Orlando on Monday.
Despite players and the NFLPA having concerns, the proposal passed. Commissioner Roger Goodell talked about this during his press conference on Tuesday, saying it was done for the safety of players.
“We talked with them in the competition committee meeting in Indianapolis during the scouting combine. They shared their concerns,” Goodell said. “After looking at videos and hearing from engineers, we decided we can’t allow this tackle because it causes a lot of injuries.
When we see something that makes the game safer, especially when the injury rate is so high, we’ll work to remove it.”
The NFL has said before that the injury rate from this tackle is much higher than other plays.
Figuring out when this tackle happens might be tough, but Goodell said it won’t just be up to the officials during games. The league will watch videos to spot violations and then give fines or other punishments.
“Yeah, we talked about this a lot,” Goodell said. “When we changed rules before, like with head-to-head contact, there was a transition period. So, officials will need to get used to spotting it. If they miss it during a game, we’ll catch it on video later and take action. This way, it’s not all on the officials to get it right, and it’ll be a change for them too.”
