A version of the “hip drop” tackle technique, which resulted in two high-profile injuries during the previous season, was declared illegal by the NFL on Monday. The announcement stated that although this method is extremely effective in taking down a runner, it is 25 times more likely to cause an injury than other tackles.
Next season, defenders will be penalized 15 yards for needless roughness when they wrap a runner with both hands, swivel, and lower their hips to unweight them. Depending on how serious the tackle was, penalties and punishments may potentially be applied.
Tony Pollard, the running back for the Dallas Cowboys, and Mark Andrews, the star tight end for the Baltimore Ravens, who suffered an injury in a primetime game in November that was witnessed by millions of fans, were both attributed to their tackling style.
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Speaking about the tackle this summer, Andrews insisted he wasn’t at fault for Logan Wilson of the Cincinnati Bengals utilizing the technique on him. He described it as a “unfortunate event” that Wilson was “playing hard” in.
The hit sidelined Andrews, a vital member of a strong AFC team, for months, igniting a discussion over whether the NFL Rules Committee need to take action against the technique during the summer.
This was exactly what the NFL did on Monday, much to the chagrin of several experts and former players. Emmanuel Acho, a former linebacker who is now a commentator, was among them. He blasted X for calling a “hip-drop tackle” nothing more than a tackle.
He declared, “There is only a tackle; there is no such thing as a hip drop tackle.” “We tried to demonize something that is simply a tackle by giving it the moniker hip drop tackle. What, exactly, is the history of the game of football? One hundred years? And there’s a hip-drop tackle just after that. That doesn’t exist. It is nothing more than a simple tackle.
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