Steelers LB Rips Potential NFL Rule Change

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers inside linebacker Kwon Alexander has already run afoul of the NFL multiple times this season when it comes to supplemental discipline and that has him worried about what the future of the league might look like if a proposed change goes through.

NFL executives said during the league’s mid-season meetings in New York this week that they’re looking to ban the so-called hip drop tackle that has injured many offensive players, including Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith earlier this month.

#Seahawks QB Geno Smith told @saltersl that the Isaiah Simmons tackle was a "dirty play" and there's "no place in this sport for that."

"I don't respect that type of stuff. You don't need to take shots at guys running out of bounds on the sidelines."pic.twitter.com/rhgMHTpT9a

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 3, 2023

“It is an unforgiving behavior and one that we need to try to define and get out of the game,” NFL vice president Jeff Miller said. “To quantify it for you, we see an injury more or less every week in the regular season on the hip-drop.”

“What’s happening on the hip-drop is the defender is encircling tackling the runner and then swinging their weight and falling on the side of their leg, which is their ankle or their knee,” Falcons CEO Rich McKay, the chairman of the NFL competition committee, said.

“When they use that tactic, you can see why they do, because it can be a smaller man against a bigger man and they’re trying to get that person down because that’s the object of the game. But when they do it, the runner becomes defenseless. They can’t kick their way out from under. And that’s the problem. That’s where the injury occurs. You see the ankle get trapped underneath the weight of the defender.”

If you’re counting at home, such a ban would mean that defenders aren’t allowed to tackle by hitting the head of the ball carrier, grasping the facemask, grasping the back of the shoulder pads, quarterbacks can’t be hit low while in the pocket, and now the NFL might be adding more restrictions — and more fines.

“They’re making it hard for us,” Alexander said. “I don’t really know what the game is coming to, for real. I don’t know how to stop from tackling someone around the waist. … I give it about three or four years, and I think they’re going to go to flag. How else are you going to tackle?”

The hip drop is banned in Australian Rules Football, but the Aussie game has significant differences from American Football — most significantly no helmets or shoulder pads.

Alexander says that NFL players sign up for the game understanding the injury risks, and while no one wants a sprained ankle, the hip drop is a better tackle than some of the alternatives.

Unlike contact with the head, a face mask or horse collar, it will also be extremely subjective.

“You can get hurt at any time doing this,” he said. “Trying to stop somebody from making a tackle like that, it’s going to be hard. … I don’t even know a technique to make that tackle (another way). If it happens, it happens. You could be at any angle trying to tackle somebody — you can’t go high. Where are you going to be able to go?”

Alexander has been fined twice this season for head contact. He got the first fine overturned on appeal. His second appeal is still pending.

“I just hope they don’t fine anybody for that stuff. We’ve got families to feed,” he said. “They’ve got to slow that down.”