NFL Wants to Ban Controversial Tackle That Caused Serious Injuries This Season

The NFL is moving to ban a controversial move that has resulted in a number of player injuries throughout the 2023 season. The hip-drop tackle involves a player grabbing the ballcarrier, spinning around their body, and falling on the back of their legs to bring them down. In recent weeks, Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews and Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill have suffered injuries as a result of the technique. 

League health and safety officials considered banning the move after last year’s season, but with these latest incidents, the danger became too obvious to ignore. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told team owners on Dec. 13 that the league will be taking action on the issue in the upcoming offseason. 

“We all should work to get that out of the game,” Goodell said at a news conference, per The Washington Post. “You see it escalated the number of times it occurred this season. The [potential] injury can be very devastating. We saw that also.”

He went on to point out that the problem isn’t just limited to professional football. “It’s not just happening at the NFL level. It’s happening at other levels,” he said. “It’s something that I feel we’ve got to work very hard to get that removed this spring.”

Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, emphasized the importance of eliminating the controversial tackle from games. 

“We have to now,” Vincent said of banning the move. “A year ago when we actually brought the hip-drop or the version of the tackle that we were seeing on the video, there were some clubs who had no clue what we were thinking, what we were talking about.”

“It’s a gruesome play,” he added. 

Andrews’ recovery continues as he stays off his ankle injury as a result of a hip-drop tackle last month. The rest of Hill’s season, meanwhile, remains in jeopardy after he suffered a hip-drop-related ankle injury on Dec. 10 and struggled to finish the game on both feet.