NFL says this tackle producing injuries at significantly higher rate
The NFL has not yet proposed an official rule change to ban the hip-drop tackle that injured Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard. But it seems to be getting close to doing so.
During a Zoom call on Friday, the NFL's Troy Vincent said hip-drop tackles are causing injuries at a rate that is 20 percent higher than all other tackles.
According to ESPN's Stephen Holder, it sounds like the NFL is serious about banning the tackle and wants the league's coaches to help them get there.
The hip-drop tackle started to gain more attention when Pollard was injured in the NFC Divisional playoffs, suffering a broken fibula with less than two minutes to play in the second quarter of the game.
That started the discussion about the tackle being banned, and NFL defensive players were immediately angry about the possibility.
At this point nothing is official, but the facts that the league is throwing out specific statistics about injury rates and that top officials have publicly said they want this sort of tackle banned makes it seem quite likely that we are going to see some movement on this in the coming weeks and months. The NFL is a very reactionary league when it comes to these sorts of things, and a high-profile player from a high-profile team suffering a major injury in a playoff game is the type of thing that can quickly get the ball rolling on changes.
It only seems to be a matter of when, and not if, that change gets made. Eventually, NFL players will adjust, but the short-term effect is going to be a lot of penalties that make fans -- not to mention players and teams -- extremely angry.
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