The NFL has reportedly banned the hip-drop tackle and will fine players who break the new rule from next season.
The method of tackling, where a defensive player approaches from behind and becomes dead weight while falling to the ground, onto the attacker’s legs, poses up to a 25-times higher risk of injury – according to NFL executive Jeff Miller.
Speaking last October, Miller said: ‘It is an unforgiving behavior and one that we need to try to define and get out of the game.’
Last week, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he fully expected the tackle to be banned.
And now, according to NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport, the tackle has been officially banned. Ari Meirov added that fines will follow for players who break the new rule and a 15-yard penalty and a first down will also be enforced if player is judged to have used the technique.
Rich McKay, chairman of NFL’s competition committee, said last year of the method: ‘What’s happening on the hip-drop is the defender is encircling tackling the runner and then swinging their weight and falling on the side of their leg, which is their ankle or their knee.
‘When they use that tactic, you can see why they do, because it can be a smaller man against a bigger man and they’re trying to get that person down because that’s the object of the game.
‘But when they do it, the runner becomes defenseless. They can’t kick their way out from under. And that’s the problem. That’s where the injury occurs. You see the ankle get trapped underneath the weight of the defender.’
Last season, Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews sustained a serious injury when Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson used a hip-drop tackle on him in their November 16 game.
Andrews had a cracked fibula and ligament damage and was sidelined until the AFC Championship Game on January 28, which the Ravens lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.
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