Coming with major controversy, the NFL has outright BANNED the hip-drop tackle. Those of you might be asking, “Abraham, greatest sports writer of all time, what exactly IS a hip-drop tackle?” Allow me to explain the hip-drop tackle, not through words of my own, but through the greatest internet data base of all time. X (formerly twitter)!
So…. The question still remains. What the actual *!@$ is a hip-drop tackle?
According to my good friends at CBS Sports, a hip-drop tackle is when a player
“Grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms; and unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg at or below the knee.”
Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports
Here’s the problem.
I get it, right? I get it. We need to put the safety of the players in the fore front of our minds. HOWEVER, since the game was invented, football has been a very physical contact sport. Not one player, coach, team owner, or fan has the impression that football isn’t a very physical and injury prone sport. What’s worse? This rule puts an extra level of complexity on what’s already a quick-time in-the-moment action for them, which is TACKLING.
Here’s what some players have had to say about the rule:
Now, whether this was the right move by the NFL or not, only time will tell, but one thing’s for sure. The fans drive the market. The players are the one’s putting their body on the line. When you have both of them seemingly aligned on one issue against the league, you’d have to think the league would have to listen.
