On Monday, the National Football League announced that owners had approved a rule proposal that banned the swivel hip-drop tackle technique.
According to The Atheltic, the swivel hip-drop tackle is when a player “Grabs a runner with both hands/arms while attempting to make a tackle or unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and lower body.”
The new rule will result in violators being flagged for a 15-yard penalty.
NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent told the press that the new rule would also result in players getting fined and receiving warning letters after the game.
NFL bans hip-drop tackle — and it’s already a huge controversy https://t.co/SS3X2JBcGh pic.twitter.com/I5l3BzWVVt
— New York Post (@nypost) March 25, 2024
In case you have never seen the technique used, here are some examples of the tackling technique:
Rich McKay says hip-drop ban passed unanimously. Interesting always, & especially after PA voiced concern over excess fining.
Ban is specifically for “swivel” version of hip-drop, not all versions, which will be hard to officiate consistently. Here are examples voters saw today: pic.twitter.com/XYWSxpQWe4
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) March 25, 2024
Per ESPN:
NFL owners have approved a rule proposal to ban the swivel hip-drop tackle, the league announced Monday.
The violation will result in a 15-yard penalty if flagged in games, but Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, strongly implied last week that it is likely to be enforced similarly to the “use of helmet” rule, which typically leads to warning letters and fines in the week after a game rather than flags during play.
The hip-drop tackling ban proposal was written to address only a subset of the rugby tackling style that has spread around the NFL in recent years, competition committee chairman Rich McKay said last week.
This isn’t the first time the NFL has changed its rules in the name of “safety.”
In 2022, the NFL passed a new roughing-the-passer penalty that penalizes defenses for being too rough to a quarterback after he releases the football.
The new rule has left many defensive players playing less aggressively due to fear they will receive a penalty, which has led to an offensive explosion in the league.
