By Joiner Martínez
Feb 26, 2024, 9:45 PM EST
The NFL Competition Committee is taking steps to ban the hip-drop tackle, after it was reported that injuries increased between 20 and 25 times in the 2023 season compared to previous campaigns.
But the Competition Committee is still working on the precise wording of a rule prohibiting the hip-drop tackle, and that’s where things get complicated: if the rule can’t be defined in a way that players understand and referees understand. applied consistently, it could do more harm than good.
The ‘hip-drop’ is a tackle in which the defender throws himself from behind onto the opponent’s hip, which causes the offensive’s knees or ankles to run the risk of being trapped when stopped, something that in the campaign that ended caused several serious injuries.
NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller explained: “We’re really hopeful that this play will be banned this offseason.”
Miller acknowledged that this season defensive players used the hip-drop more frequently to stop running backs, tight ends and receivers, a situation that caused the number of injuries to skyrocket.
“The goal of the league is to reduce the risk of injuries, that is why we want to eliminate this type of behavior from the game if possible,” added the NFL executive, who underlined the seriousness of the action in the numbers released by the specialists.
“To quantify the damage you just have to say that we saw an injury more or less every week in the regular season due to the hip-drop tackle,” he said.
Among the players who have suffered injuries from this action are Geno Smith, star quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks; Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill; who were joined in the playoffs last January by Mark Andrews, tight end of the Baltimore Ravens.
That’s why the NFL Players Association opposes the ban. Austin Ekeler, a veteran running back who is also a member of the NFLPA executive committee, said this month that banning the hip-drop tackle would be “detrimental to the game” because of the difficulty of properly defining it for players and officials.
So, although the Competition Committee seems willing to go to next month’s league meetings with a proposal to ban this play, it is not certain that the proposal will obtain the 24 votes necessary to be approved.
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