The NFL is determined to dump the hip-drop tackle. The NFL Players Association opposes the move.
On Thursday, league leadership shrugged at the union’s opposition, explaining that the players always resist changes aimed at making the game safer.
Indeed they do.
Peter King wrote an article for Sports Illustrated in November 2010 regarding the league’s reaction to the bang-bang-bang helmet-to-helmet hits that happened on October 17: Steelers linebacker James Harrison on Browns receiver Mohamed Massaquoi, Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather on Ravens tight end Todd Heap, and Falcons cornerback Dunta Robinson on Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson. It all unfolded in roughly 5-10 minutes of real time.
The NFLPA didn’t like the league’s decision to enforce rules against hits to the head and neck area of defenseless players more aggressively.
Said union president Kevin Mawae, via King: “The skirts need to be taken off in the NFL offices.”
Steelers safety Ryan Clark, who was the team’s union rep at the time, called it a “sad day for the sport.”
“The league has made James Harrison a villain for playing exactly the way he played to earn the Defensive Player of the Year award [in 2008],” Clark said, via King. “I think what we’re seeing is a knee-jerk reaction to the result of the hits, not a thoughtful reaction to the reality of the hits.”
History has painted a different picture. The notoriously reactive NFL was trying to be proactive when it comes to player safety, in defiance of the wishes of the players.
It’s continuing to this day. The hip-drop tackle causes serious lower leg injuries. The players apparently don’t care.
It’s one of the reasons why I believe that, eventually, someone with a lot of money who can’t buy a path to NFL ownership will start a new league that embraces the rules of days gone by. The players will sign up for it. A certain percentage of the fan base will flock to it.
Right or wrong, the more the NFL changes, the more likely someone will decide to give players who crave old-school brutality what they want. Enough viewers undoubtedly would embrace an old-school alternative for it to find the traction to make enough money to survive.
And maybe even to thrive.
