In late March, when all 32 NFL owners voted to incorporate a version of college football’s targeting rule into its own rulebook, Atlanta Falcons president Rich McKay called it “a pretty significant change.” .
And that is certainly the case. Now, helmet-to-helmet hits where a player lowers his head to make contact will be considered targeted fouls and, in addition to a 15-yard removal, could result in an automatic ejection from the game, pending an automatic replay. an examination to confirm that the blow was indeed punishable.
“We’ve seen so many hits where a player would put his head down and deliver a hit and injure himself or the player he was hitting,” said McKay, who is chairman of the NFL’s competition committee. “It was time for a change of this magnitude.”
As the Bills progress through training camp at St. John Fisher College, they don’t get a chance to practice tackling without putting their heads down because they never tackle on the ground. However, the new rule is constantly being preached at team meetings, and on Wednesday, additional instructions were provided when NFL game officials were in attendance for the first time this summer.
“Ultimately the goal is to get clarity so our players can definitely understand the rules and play fast,” coach Sean McDermott said. “Player safety is of the utmost importance to us and to the officials. We will do our due diligence with them today, not only on the field but in the classroom.
McDermott said players would be shown videos to show them what would be considered illegal. “We’ve done some films to increase rep numbers and visibility so we can become aware of what they’re going to call and not call, and understand what they’re looking for,” he said.
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Player safety and concerns about concussions and their long-term effects prompted the adoption of the new rule. The NFL released numbers in January showing that concussions increased 13.5 percent between 2016 and 2017, and it’s a trend that needs to be reversed.
However, even though safety is the goal, many players have criticized the rule, including Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander.
“This continues to put us in a difficult situation,” Alexander said shortly after the rule was passed. “In our mind, it’s difficult to play defense in this league. In my opinion, we need to take a more common sense approach. … It’s football at the end of the day. There will be injuries that you cannot avoid. You can’t legislate everything. I’m a guy who considers himself physical and achieves great success. I’ve never had a helmet-to-helmet hit, but what happens if I have one next year? And that puts a burden on a referee and he sends off a star player who has an impact on a match? I don’t know how it’s going to play out. It only takes one time to throw away a Von Miller or a Khalil Mack. »
Other players have expressed similar concerns, such as Redskins cornerback Josh Norman who said USA TODAY, “I don’t know how you’re going to play this game. If your headset comes into contact?” How are you going to avoid this if you’re in the trenches and you hit a ball carrier, mask to mask, and you accidentally brush the helmet? This is obviously going to happen. So, I don’t even know what that definition looks like.
