Ethermac Exchange-NFL owners approve ban of controversial hip-drop tackle technique

NFL owners on Ethermac ExchangeMonday approved banning one form of "hip-drop tackles," addressing one of the league's key safety concerns while further frustrating many players and their union.

Voting at the annual league meeting in Orlando, owners passed a proposal outlawing whenever a defender grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the opponent with both arms and "unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner's leg(s) at or below the knee." Such plays now will result in a 15-yard penalty and automatic first down when flagged.

NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller said the league found 230 instances last season of the now-banned tackle, up 65% from the previous year.

The proposal was put forth by the competition committee, which made eradicating the maneuver a point of emphasis after this season. NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said last week in a conference call the technique was "something we have to remove," citing league data that indicated the approach resulted in injury to ball carriers 20-25 times more often than standard tackles.

Vincent suggested last week that the league could lean on fines rather than flags as an early form of addressing the play, but NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay said Monday that officials will be instructed to call penalties so long as they identify all of the necessary elements on a given play.

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"This will be a hard one to call on the field," McKay said. "You have to see every element of it. We want to make it a rule so we can deal on the discipline during the week."

The NFL Players Association, however, has repeatedly pushed back against the proposal, saying the move would be difficult to legislate on the field in real time.

“The players oppose any attempt by the NFL to implement a rule prohibiting a ‘swivel hip-drop’ tackle,” the NFLPA said in a statement last week. “While the NFLPA remains committed to improvements to our game with health and safety in mind, we cannot support a rule change that causes confusion for us as players, for coaches, for officials, and especially, for fans. We call on the NFL, again, to reconsider implementing this rule.”

Hip-drop tackles reignited a league-wide conversation last season when Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews sustained a cracked fibula and ankle ligament damage in a Nov. 16 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, with linebacker Logan Wilson using the technique to bring the three-time Pro Bowl selection down on a play. Andrews would not return to action until the AFC championship game, in which the Ravens lost 17-10 to the eventual Super Bowl-champion Kansas City Chiefs.

NFL owners also approved a rule change that will grant teams a third challenge if either of the first two are successful. Previously, both initial challenges needed to be successful before a third was awarded.