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The hip-drop tackle

The hip-drop tackle is a tackle that has been used in the National Football League leagues for years. In a hip-drop tackle a defensive player approaches an offensive player from behind and puts his arms around the player causing all the weight off the defensive player to land on the offensive player. This tackle has formed controversial opinions around it recently and has been rumored to be banned from the NFL starting in the 2024-2025 NFL off-season.

The NFL’s league executive Jeff Miller speaks about hip-drop tackles being unforgiving behavior and says they see an Injury every week in the regular season from the hip-drop tackle. Miller claims the tackle poses a 25-times higher risk of injury than a normal tackle. Dr. Robert Glatter worked as a sideline physician with the New York Jets and was an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, Northwell Health in New York. Glitter say's a defender essentially swings their full body weight as they fall on their ankle, leg or knee. This can leave the lower body at risk for serious ankle and ligament damage. The potential banning of the hip-drop tackle has also caused media attention with mixed emotions.

History

The hip-drop tackle got attraction during the 2022-2023 NFL playoffs. The Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard was tackled from a hip drop tackle and ended up with a fractured fibula from a San Francisco 49ers defensive back Jimmie Ward. In the 2022-2023 NFL offseason league spoke about demolishing the hip-drop tackle. It was ultimately decided that the hip-drop tackle will remain in the NFL, however, recently there have been many injuries from the tackle. In a prime time game in week 11 of the NFL season, star TE Mark Andrews of the Baltimore Ravens was hit with a hip-drop tackle and suffered a season ending injury. There have been many other players to go down injured from a hip-drop tackle such as Geno Smith of the Seattle Seahawks. He is the quarterback for the Seahawks and he had to leave briefly in a game against the New York Giants, because he was injured by a hip-drop tackle.

The chairmen of the NFL, Rich Mckay called the hip-drop tackle a cousin of the horse-collar tackle. The horse-collar tackle was banned in the NFL in 2005, because a defender's body weight would be on the legs of the offensive player causing risk of injury to be higher.

The NFL isn't the only league that has looked into banning hip-drop tackle. There have been Rugby leagues that have been trying for years to remove hip-drop tackles, because it can lead to season ending knee injuries. The New Zealand Rugby league was able to ban the tackle and used after game penalties rather than trying to officiate it while the game is going on. The NFL has reached out with rugby leagues and discussed changes to their rules to keep their players safer and healthier. Many sports analyst such as Peter King who works for NBC sports believe the NFL will move aggressively to erase the hip-drop tackle in the upcoming offseason and this will be the last season of a hip-drop tackle.

Mixed Opinions

Many current and former NFL players have come out and gave their opinions of the NFL removing hip-drop tackles. A Las Vegas Raider’s running back, Kenyan Drake went on social media and gave his opinion on the tackle. Drake was injured by a hip-drop tackle himself and on social media he said the NFL should further investigate hip-drop tackles. Drake said If the emphasis is to protect the players, this should be an illegal form of tackling like the horse-collar tackle. Drake went onto say that we lose players weekly to high ankle sprains and broken bones, but the league would rather flag players for erroneous taunting penalties.

Raven Safety, Marcus Williams who is teammates with Mark Andrews that was severely injured by a hip-drop tackle, gave his opinion on the matter after a post-game interview. Williams said he feels sorry for Andrews, but the hip-drop tackle shouldn’t be banned. He believes it will basically just be flag football at that point. The NFL found a hip-drop tackle to occur around 300 times a season, so removal of hip-drop tackles will cause players to shift their game.

Rhamondre Stevenson of the New England Patriots is a running back who was recently injured by a hip-drop tackle in week 13 of the 2023-2024 NFL season. Similar to Williams, Stevensons teammates defended the tackle. Starting Center for the Patriots David Andrews said it's the defense's job to tackle guys and he believes people aren't doing that with malicious intent. D. Andrews believes the NFL is starting too take away to many aspects of the game and it's an unfortunate reality of football for players to get injured.

Future

Going into the 2024-2025 off season the NFL is expected to thoroughly investigate hip-drop tackles. The NFL needs 24 owners to agree with them on banning hip-drop tackles. Since the tackle has a very real impact on player health and safety it’s believed hip-drop tackles will be eliminated. Many NFL players have spoke about their frustration with how much the game has been changing and New England Patriots Jabrill Peppers was asked if he believes the hip-drop tackle should be banned and he responded with "it's football man." Many players seem to have similar stances on the situation, however a possible change will be coming.

References

1. Padilla, Ramon, and Beard, Stephen, and Zarracina, Javier. "What is a hip-drop tackle? And why some from the NFL want it banned. Graphics explain". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2023-12-05.

2. Kasabian, Paul. "NFL to Consider Rule Change to Eliminate Hip-Drop Tackle Due to Risk of Injury". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2023-12-05.

3. "NFL looking to eliminate hip-drop tackle, discussing 'tush push'". NFL.com. Retrieved 2023-12-05.

4. Nguyen, Ted. "What is a hip-drop tackle and will the NFL and NFLPA agree to ban it?". The Athletic. Retrieved 2023-12-05.

5. Bachar, Zach. "Peter King Expects NFL 'to Move Aggressively' on Rule Change on Hip-Drop Tackles". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2023-12-05

6. Eisenberg, Jeff "The NFL is walking a fine line between player safety and over-policing the game". Yahoo Sports. 2023-10-20. Retrieved 2023-12-05.

7. Tanner, Jeremey "What is the hip-drop tackle, the NFL move that some want banned?". Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. 2023-11-23. Retrieved 2023-12-05.

8. Sullivan, Tyler. "Patriots players defend hip-drop tackle that injured Rhamondre Stevenson in loss to Chargers". CBSSports.com. 2023-12-04. Retrieved 2023-12-05.

9. Florio, Mike. "Hip-drop tackle could finally be on the way out". NBC Sports. 2023-12-03. Retrieved 2023-12-05.