Lowering The Head To Initiate Contact Is Now A Penalty

[RetiredCollegeCoach]

16 minutes ago, KillerKat said:

This has nothing to do with safety. Lowering the head is a natural reaction, but if your technique is good then nobody gets hurts. Having your head up the whole way actually hurts the neck and can cause serious damage to it. The NFL is categorizing blatant dirty, cheap hits in which a player lowers the head and launches into a player along with those that actually do it right and now everyone is suffering for it.

Honestly I will admit that I'm overreacting - and the key is in five words from your post: "if your technique is good".

I really cant speak to this at an NFL level - probably, at that level, everyone's technique is perfect or getting there (it's not, but for the sake of argument, sure).

But no, at lower levels, including some pretty serious lower levels, technique is not good. And the continued emphasis on proving yourself through high-toughness hits with underdeveloped technique is borderline criminal.

*******

Honestly, though, even with perfect technique, the real long-term discussion on the concussion issue is going to be about impact location - specifically, regarding impacts that are relatively asymptomatic. These are the impacts that still occur with perfect technique - in fact, through perfect technique - and there is some outright frightening research on the long-term effects of asymptomatic frontal hits.

[Harbingers]

Penalty every play. I also think it will do more harm to players than good. Forces them to be more upright which opens up to many other injuries. 

[KillerKat]

32 minutes ago, Harbingers said:

Penalty every play. I also think it will do more harm to players than good. Forces them to be more upright which opens up to many other injuries. 

More life threatening injuries at that. Funny how some rules for player safety actual does more harm than good.

[stirs]

nobody wants players hurt, especially with what we know today, but, can the NFL not "slow" the game down a bit by requiring guys to pad up a lot more?

I remember playing in high school and we had so many pads on, there was 2 types of protection there that does not exist today.  The pads themselves and a bit less speed when making contact.

The game would survive and nobody would know that guys were running 1-2/10ths slower.  Even helmets that were 1/2 inch bigger in diameter and padding might help

[LinvilleGorge]

Complete overreaction to the Shazier injury. It might sound good on paper at first until you actually think about actually trying to play football as we know it with this rule in place. It's virtually impossible. Spearing with your head is the really dangerous aspect of this style of play and that's already a penalty. 

[Eazy-E]

This will more than likely cause more injuries.

These kinds of rules need to be implemented at the lowest levels and work their way up. This would allow for a gradual change in fundamental football technique. Trying to teach an old dog new tricks isn't the greatest idea.

[PantherOnTheProwl1523]

4 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Spearing with your head is the really dangerous aspect of this style of play and that's already a penalty. 

But now it has a player getting ejected after same type of hit now along with penalty.

[Smithers]

3 hours ago, Jon Snow said:

There goes your power running game.  

Oh well.  We didn’t have one of those anyways

[Pimpdaddy]

Have any of these idiots, that make these rules, ever played the game? what position to Goodell play in college?

[Matthias]

Prepare to see more plays like the end of the Vikings/Saints playoff game.

[CelibatePimp]

2 hours ago, tiger7_88 said:

We already have that rule.  They could have just clarified.  They didn't.

This is a new rule.

Again:

Which is the exact description of what running backs with forward momentum do when players come up to tackle them.

I did not say it was a new or an old rule.

Most running backs will lower their heads to make contact with their shoulders. This rule states that if you lower your head and initiate contact with your head then it's a penalty. I don't get all these the NFL is over cries. 

[Snake]

5 hours ago, tiger7_88 said:

Next major step toward safety in sport:

No more punching the head in boxing.

[Snake]

I imagine ACL tears are going to go through the roof. 

[Matthias]

For me, the introduction of this rule might be the signal of the beginning of the end for football.  Like many have said, if this applies to offensive players, running backs in particular, we are about to see a very water-downed version of the game.  This just shows us there is no way for the NFL to solve it's concussion problem, and the end of it being the king of American sports is near.  As I said, we need to prepare to see more defensive players pulling up from tackles, and watching offensive players run free into the endzone.  It will be like watching the Probowl all season long.