Exactly a month ago, the NFL owners voted in favor of banning the “hip drop tackle” from the sport after the annual meeting in Florida. Roger Goodell-led NFL regime has seen a rising injury list over the years and the “hip drop tackle” is reasoned to be one of the main culprits. From the upcoming season, the hip drop tackle will “result in a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down,” announced the league, to much opposition. However, the NFL commissioner has a clear stance on why his regime and the ownership banned the move.
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Appearing on the latest edition of the Pat McAfee Show, Commissioner Goodell revealed how severe injuries have increased because of the move across the collegiate and NFL levels. He admitted that he has heard negative comments about the ban but Roger argued that the game remains physical. Today, athletes are faster and stronger than ever. Tactics and systems are the best there is. Hence to achieve success and entertainment, there are ways today to exploit the level of physicality in the game positively without risking players’ well-being. He expanded,
“I got to tell you, Dan Rooney, who I was probably close to, I spoke to him every day but we’d argue every day on this issue cuz he was more of a purist right and he said ‘this isn’t football’. And you know, my argument is, it is football. It’s still a physical game. These guys are faster, they’re more athletic. We don’t need those shots to the head, what we don’t need are the techniques that we’ve seen, that the hip drop.”
The old-school admirers of the game have been complaining for far too long that the game has gone soft. With scoring rates in the NFL touching new heights every season, the purists argue that the ban on the move is one more decision against the tackles and guards of the league.
To put the severeness of the tackle into context, a ‘hip drop tackle’ requires a player to grab or wrap a runner with both arms and then drop his hips/ lower his body to make a great tackle. This technique has been the staple defensive move since the old days of the NFL and with the rise in more and more leeway for attackers in the modern game, the purists have been critical of the ban.
Pat McAfee, a former NFL player himself agreed with Goodell’s assessment. He then shared a recent incident with Coach Jim Harbaugh that further justified the ban in his eyes.
Pat McAfee Reveals HC Jim Harbaugh ‘Hip Drop Tackled’ Him At Annual Meeting
At the Annual Meeting in Florida last month, Pat McAfee asked HC Harbaugh his thoughts on the ban. Harbaugh, being an old-school football guy is the exact template of a football aficionado who would reject the ban. But even he recognizes the danger of the move. Harbaugh replied to Pat’s question by actually performing the move on him. He made Pat realize the drop on the legs by the tackler is what’s the major injury causer. This aspect of the tackle has to be in check to prevent injuries.
“Jim Harbaugh did that to me in the hallway at the annual meetings because as soon as we heard about it, every former football player was like, hip drop tackle, nobody is taught don’t hip drop tackle. And then I saw Harbaugh Jim in the hall and I was like what are your thoughts, old school football guy on the hip drop tackle being taken out and there he goes, it needed to happen. Then he demonstrated to me what it was like. He grabbed on my back and then he threw. He’s huge he’s a big dude who threw his body on the back of my legs and he was like we just need to eliminate that.”
Roger Goodell and the NFL’s decision to ban the tackle is completely relevant. Safety has to be paramount and prioritized. Entertainment at the cost of the well-being of a player might not be a worthy trade-off. As far as on-field arguments are concerned, the defense makes a good point about the game being further skewed in favor of the offense with the ban.
But the only option here is to educate and coach out the move from all levels of the game. A career-ending tackle being allowed to be used frequently has no place in sports. The defense might just have to swallow the hard pill and work out new tactics to contain the offense.
