The NFL has changed tackle football forever this year

[Diehardblues]

The catch rule change is getting all the attention, but this next rule change will be more destructive to the NFL than the Blandino debacle.

Pssst. You're hearing this from me, someone who has argued the catch rule for months at a time!!!

Running backs and blockers and tackler can no longer lower their head to initiate contact. The NFL is changed forever if this is upheld. Tackle football might as well be flag football now. Get these clowns out of the NFL rule makers circle!

The NFL will be unwatchable as this goes forward, and Directv will feel the financial pain.

I totally support this decision . There’s no need to use the head for contact or initiating a tackle.

My father played with leather helmets as depicted in my avatar and the sport was based more on technique and skill rather than the physical brutality.

Football was not intended to be a Gladiator sport. This is a prudent decision in order to thwart off the lawsuits and public opinion that’s been attacking the NFL and the sport in general.

 

[Jake]

If they call it the way it sounds then the NFL won’t make it a half a year. What are they gonna do, just run into each other standing up.

Gee, I don't know. Maybe they'll have to get back to "see what you hit" and actually tackle guys instead of using their helmets like battering rams.

 

[Rayman70]

This new rule diminishes the value of running the ball...and the RB position itself. Its a terrible blow to the league. They wanna see passing,period.

 

[Sydla]

Lets see here...now lets say Zeke lowers his head in the hole and does a typical Zeke run, is that now a penalty? Is a QB sneak now a penalty? These ARSES who come up with this crap are just pandering to the PC pressure being put onto them. Its a gladiator sport.No one is being forced to play. You know what your in for when you get into this profession. I hate this new rule!!!!! The game has been ruined.

LOL.

Geezus.

 

[Diehardblues]

They did it for decades.

No one was leading with their head when the helmet was plastic with foam rubber in it, or worse. It wasn't until they made the helmets sturdy, heavy, and insulated that guys started using it as a weapon.

You never see a rugby player - where tackling in football originated - leading with his head.

Correct!!

Along the way as the gladiator helmets were developed coaches begin implementing this more brutal style of hitting to force turnovers and incompletions.

 

[Rayman70]

I totally support this decision . There’s no need to use the head for contact or initiating a tackle.

My father played with leather helmets as depicted in my avatar and the sport was based more on technique and skill rather than the physical brutality.

Football was not intended to be a Gladiator sport. This is a prudent decision in order to thwart off the lawsuits and public opinion that’s been attacking the NFL and the sport in general.

I call bs. It WAS and always has been a brutal sport,at its purest. It is what it is. Like any CHOSEN PROFESSION,there are risks. THIS IS NO DIFFERENT. The product on the field is tarnished after this ridiculous rule. I see a hodge podge of terrible ref. calls coming down the pike already. THIS will be a total failure.

 

[Rayman70]

LOL.

Geezus.

I'm just askin....Hey...not trying a knee jerk reaction...but this just bothers me.Im likely not the only fan that this bothers.Bet you many players take issue with the rule too.

 

[BrassCowboy]

Everyone just going to complain and ignore the actual risks and disastrous outcomes to head injuries?

I'm not a barbarian so i'm fine with the change.

really? so if a person enjoys watching teams actually earning their own yards without constant flags and errant ref calls moving them down the field, they are barbarians.

I am all for avoiding injuries and will wait this year out to see if this is called more than once or twice before I decide this is no longer football, but to say it is baseless to think this could be a disaster for the game of football is crazy.

I do know that I think refs needed to have the absolute minimalist effect on the game as possible and would like to see many rules removed or changed to make it so.

 

[Jake]

Running backs and blockers and tackler can no longer lower their head to initiate contact. The NFL is changed forever if this is upheld. Tackle football might as well be flag football now. Get these clowns out of the NFL rule makers circle!

Go ask some old timers if they lowered their head to initiate contact. "Tackle football" wasn't invented in 1980. This leading with your head garbage is a recent phenomenon. I played in the 70s and 80s and always saw what I hit. With that flimsy plastic and foam padding I wasn't going head first into anything.

If the guys getting paid millions can't figure out how to tackle, run, or block without using their helmet to lead the way then they need to find another career. It's not complicated.

 

[Cowboys22]

If they actually enforce this on RBs, Emmitt Smith will be the happiest person on earth. His record will never come close to being broken. Running the ball will become even less of a factor and will never have a huge resurgence. Average yards per carry will go down significantly and 1000 yard seasons will become a think of the past.

 

[ConceptCoop]

The NCAA did it and it's worked fine.

 

[CouchCoach]

Belichick has been using a tackling technique for several seasons that is a good work around with the CBA limitations on tackling in practice. The tackler must pick up the ball carrier and the only way that is feasible is with the shoulder so that not only protects the head area of the tackler but makes am better tackler.

BTW, since he installed this, his team leads the league in limiting yards after contact. Since when did lowering the helmet make a better tackler? Watch the best tacklers, see them lowering their helmet or keeping their head up so that can better wrap up. Lee is the best tackler on the team, watch him demonstrate textbook tackling, head up, arms wrapping up, ball carrier goes down.

I totally disagree with the premise this hurts the game. Tackling is a skill, a learned skill, ramming one's helmet into a ball carrier is not a skill and is also not effective tackling as the ball carrier can bounce off.

Now, here is a simple exercise to demonstrate the effectiveness of head up tackling, Approach your girlfriend or wife, preferably not both and certainly not at the same time. Put your head down in the ramming position and hug her. Feel awkward? Does she think you are awkward? Well, so do I. Now, put your put head up and attempt the same hug. Now, how was that? She may still think you are an awkward individual but a drop dead hugger.

BTW, you can get this little exercise and many many more in my new book "CouchCoach's Football Applications for the Bedroom". The chapter on "Under Center or the Shotgun?" is a real page turner.

 

[glimmerman]

Gee, I don't know. Maybe they'll have to get back to "see what you hit" and actually tackle guys instead of using their helmets like battering rams.

They are gonna have to bend down to tackle. Hope they have good neck braces. Face mask in the chest. I think they changed the rule for RB a while back but only if they were outside the lines and didn’t count for coming through the hole. I have never seen it called. Remember when murray lowered his helmet and pads and took down that egirls d-lineman.

 

[Aviano90]

I think the problem I am going to have with it is that it will over enforced and incidental contact is going to get players ejected. It's like some rules are good in theory but then become absurd when enforced to the letter of the law. Some of the penalties on defenses for accidentally brushing a QBs helmet with their hand were atrocious. Even some of the hitting defenseless receiver penalties were bad when the intent wasn't there to lead with the head.

 

[Fletch]

Put leather helmets on the guys and we can go back to real football.

 

[Toruk_Makto]

Go ask some old timers if they lowered their head to initiate contact. "Tackle football" wasn't invented in 1980. This leading with your head garbage is a recent phenomenon. I played in the 70s and 80s and always saw what I hit. With that flimsy plastic and foam padding I wasn't going head first into anything.

If the guys getting paid millions can't figure out how to tackle, run, or block without using their helmet to lead the way then they need to find another career. It's not complicated.

Great post.

@BrassCowboy

 

[Rayman70]

really? so if a person enjoys watching teams actually earning their own yards without constant flags and errant ref calls moving them down the field, they are barbarians.

I am all for avoiding injuries and will wait this year out to see if this is called more than once or twice before I decide this is no longer football, but to say it is baseless to think this could be a disaster for the game of football is crazy.

I do know that I think refs needed to have the absolute minimalist effect on the game as possible and would like to see many rules removed or changed to make it so.

I'm leaning heavily towards this new rule being a bloody disaster. The refs already wield too much control over the ebb and flow of the game...now they have carte blanche. This rule is very murky. This rule will cost teams games...mark it down.

 

[Toruk_Makto]

Belichick has been using a tackling technique for several seasons that is a good work around with the CBA limitations on tackling in practice. The tackler must pick up the ball carrier and the only way that is feasible is with the shoulder so that not only protects the head area of the tackler but makes am better tackler.

BTW, since he installed this, his team leads the league in limiting yards after contact. Since when did lowering the helmet make a better tackler? Watch the best tacklers, see them lowering their helmet or keeping their head up so that can better wrap up. Lee is the best tackler on the team, watch him demonstrate textbook tackling, head up, arms wrapping up, ball carrier goes down.

I totally disagree with the premise this hurts the game. Tackling is a skill, a learned skill, ramming one's helmet into a ball carrier is not a skill and is also not effective tackling as the ball carrier can bounce off.

Now, here is a simple exercise to demonstrate the effectiveness of head up tackling, Approach your girlfriend or wife, preferably not both and certainly not at the same time. Put your head down in the ramming position and hug her. Feel awkward? Does she think you are awkward? Well, so do I. Now, put your put head up and attempt the same hug. Now, how was that? She may still think you are an awkward individual but a drop dead hugger.

BTW, you can get this little exercise and many many more in my new book "CouchCoach's Football Applications for the Bedroom". The chapter on "Under Center or the Shotgun?" is a real page turner.

Another great post.

 

[Rayman70]

They are gonna have to bend down to tackle. Hope they have good neck braces. Face mask in the chest. I think they changed the rule for RB a while back but only if they were outside the lines and didn’t count for coming through the hole. I have never seen it called. Remember when murray lowered his helmet and pads and took down that egirls d-lineman.

This is effectively "the ZEKE rule." His style is to lead with his noggin and power through the defender. I'm worried what this does to his game now...and other RB's like him. ****** RULE.

 

[Diehardblues]

I call bs. It WAS and always has been a brutal sport,at its purest. It is what it is. Like any CHOSEN PROFESSION,there are risks. THIS IS NO DIFFERENT. The product on the field is tarnished after this ridiculous rule. I see a hodge podge of terrible ref. calls coming down the pike already. THIS will be a total failure.

It’s a necessary decision to save the sport from lawsuits.

While it’s always been a physical sport we didn’t have the brain damage the sport is delivering now which could threaten the survival and future of the game.