Lavonte David Doesn’t Like The Ban On The Hip-Drop Tackle
August 5th, 2024
Calls new rule “BS.”
When former Bucs general manager Richie McKay, otherwise known as Roger Goodell’s stooge, helped push through the ban on the hip-drop tackle, Joe went bananas.
The illegal sack is bad enough. Now we have to regulate tackles? Football not only is a physical game, it’s played at lightning-fast speed. You can’t stop a speeding bullet body in mid-tackle because the tackler grabbed a guy the wrong way.
This is different than headhunting. That’s when you target a guy’s head. That’s intent.
This ban on hip-drop tackles (Joe never heard of this until a few years ago) is yet another way for referees to change games, maybe championship games. When will the NFL go have an epiphany and realize no one outside of a referee’s family watches games or pays handsomely to attend games to watch the zebras.
Bucs star linebacker Lavonte David thinks the ban on hip-drop tackles is a wrong-headed idea. Appearing on a podcast hosted by Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team, David spoke out about this new rule.
“Your instincts against a ballcarrier is you want to get them down,” David told Meirov. “You want to get them down the best way that you can.
“When you grab someone by the hips you just fall down. … I just feel like this is a disadvantage for a defense. You want to get the ballcarrier down as quick as you can.
“Now you have to grab a guy and think how you are going to get him down. That’s just an opportunity for him to gain more yards.”
David later said the rule is “BS.”
David is 100 percent right. How is a guy supposed to change how he is taking a ballcarrier down in mid-tackle? You can’t.
Look, Joe gets the NFL allegedly wants player safety. But at some point common sense is important. Take the illegal sack flagged fro putting too much weight on a quarterback; what’s a pass rusher supposed to do, bring a weight scale on the field with him and place it on the quarterback before he tackles the guy?
Simple rule of thumb: The more you allow zebras an opportunity to butcher calls and screw up games, the more that will happen.
How exactly do dumb rules like this make the game better? They don’t.
#Bucs LB Lavonte David on the hip-drop tackle being banned: "I just feel like it may be a disadvantage for the defense because you want to quickly get the ball carrier down, and now you have to grab the guy and think about how to get him down. … When I first heard about it, I… https://t.co/QwszMWbIki pic.twitter.com/U2T2G16IEF
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) July 31, 2024
August 5th, 2024 at 6:37 am
Excellent article. Terrible rule. Moronic rule. The NFL gets too cute for their own good.
August 5th, 2024 at 6:51 am
Geez , this and the new kickoff. Goodell has really worked hard to ruin the NFL. McKay is his lapdog. Glad he left the Bucs the way he did as it showed his true character. The guy is a nepo baby and a bureaucrat. No football knowledge.
August 5th, 2024 at 7:18 am
It’s a good rule. The defender is swiveling to land with his full body weight on the back of the runners legs! What’s wrong with sliding down from the hips to the legs without pulling yourself up, and dropping down full body weight on the back of the legs? Defenders were perfecting the hip drop tackle to the point of to many players getting hurt. It became a dangerous tackle, just like the horse collar, it has the same result.
August 5th, 2024 at 7:25 am
@Hodad so will they only call the penalty if a defender lands swivels and lands on the ball carriers legs or is the mere action of dropping your weight to pull down someone up for interpretation?
August 5th, 2024 at 8:19 am
It’s a terrible rule because it’s reactionary, like pretty much anything else on defense. So now “banning” something as if it’s a technical element of the game as if it’s taught & repped when in reality it’s a defender perhaps using his momentum to counter a ball carriers forward momentum to stop the advancement of the football.
“Hip drop tackle” didn’t even have a name until the last few seasons, but if the owners are losing money/games it effects the NFL and the NFL is obligated to protect the shield. I’m almost 100% sure the motion to get this on the books was backed by Jerry Jones after Tony Pollard went down in the playoffs, the crazy part is the NFL will address this but will and still remains mum on CTE because once a player retires it’s “not the leagues’ problem”.
Bad fundamentals, injuries and making rules that favor the offense are the reason the “hip drop” is even a thing
August 5th, 2024 at 8:27 am
I think the rule is a good one. I understand how hard it is for guys to tackle in todays game but similar to the “horse collar”, this tackle just creates too many nasty career threatening injuries.
August 5th, 2024 at 8:31 am
You just know this rule will will kill us in the worst possible moment.
August 5th, 2024 at 8:33 am
Put flags on and be done with it. NFL doing away with tackle football. Awful
August 5th, 2024 at 8:39 am
Maybe the NFL should just go with 7-on-7 flag football and end all the snowflake tears.
John Lynch would never be a force in the 2024 NFL.
I keep asking myself what would make me decide to pick another pastime other than the ever-increasing pussified NFL.
And now the NFL has gone fill-tilt surveillance state with facial recognition at ALL NFL venues? WTF?
August 5th, 2024 at 9:17 am
Razor, or save one of our stars like Evans from ending his career. The players will adapt. When you tackle from behind, starting at the hips, the defender just needs to slide down, wrap the knees to the ankles, and the ball carrier will go down. They don’t need to go from the hips to just dropping their full weight on the back of the legs. The result is the same as a horse collar. If they start tackling QBs like that in the pocket with the hip drop, better have a good backup QB. The season is 17 games long, anything that keeps players safer I’m all for.
August 5th, 2024 at 9:30 am
And the media and fans are annoyed at the ridiculous penalties that change games now.
Wait until this starts.
Injuries are part of the game.
August 5th, 2024 at 10:13 am
“They don’t need to go from the hips to just dropping their full weight on the back of the legs.”
Tackles are made on ballhandlers from every angle imaginable, the argument is a defensive player has to turn a reactionary response of wrapping a forward moving target up negating his momentum with his own momentum. All this is easier said than done, BUT to pretend as if it’s some purposeful thing when it’s really just a natural reaction is what David is gripping about and it’s valid gripe.
So through no fault of the defender just simply trying to do his job while a ball handler isn’t going to stop his forward motion to be tackled still gets tackled but because one force is moving in one direction and the other moving the opposite direction just the optics of the stop puts the refs to make a judegement call out of safety.
I get wanting to protect players, but if that were a consistent line the NFL were always then they wouldn’t have went so hard to get that “Concussion” movie made about 10 years ago wiped off the face of the earth. To me, it makes playing defense harder i.e. easier to play offense, advanced the ball, score points, pad the pocket of team owners and sub sequentially the NFL itself.
This is like the NBA making hand checking illegal or making clear path violation, so now even the scrub teams are scoring 115 points a game.
August 5th, 2024 at 10:16 am
Tony Siragusa(spelling) is to blame for the body weight penalty when he crushed Rich Gannon on purpose. If you want to blame someone blame fat Tony.
August 5th, 2024 at 10:26 am
Imagine having your knee or ankle blown out right in the middle of your career because some 300lb DL guy sits on the back of your legs. Injuries are are part of the game but the Hip Drop is excessive. A knee or ankle takes a full year or more to feel comfortable. Just ask Chris Godwin.
August 5th, 2024 at 10:36 am
Referees with even more freedom in a league that is now gambling friendly is a suicidal combination.
August 5th, 2024 at 10:49 am
“Imagine having your knee or ankle blown out right in the middle of your career because some 300lb DL guy sits on the back of your legs.”
Same thing can happen in training camp without being tackled, look at Ryan Jensen or Sua Opeta. It’s not a milacious tact, it’s really part of opposing forces meeting and one having the onus to make a stop while the other has the priorty of forward progress, this ruling makes the formers job harder and that latters job much easier now with a potential added bonus of a penalty. I get the injury concerns and wanting to protect players but making defenders have to think over their instincts is also a way to get somebody hurt.
August 5th, 2024 at 11:33 am
How exactly do dumb rules like this make the game better? They don’t.
-Another step closer to flag football
August 5th, 2024 at 12:39 pm
Spot on, Joes.
August 5th, 2024 at 12:50 pm
LD sure wines alot like a little girl. He’lll probably complain that 18 games is too much next. Man up! You’re getting paid to play not act like a child.
August 5th, 2024 at 1:14 pm
I think it’s hard to say how this will play out until we’ve seen some games called under the new rule.
August 5th, 2024 at 2:10 pm
I hate it as well.
Can’t hit from the shoulders up, can’t hit from the knees down, can’t grab from behind and pull.
They’ve basically narrowed it from the thigh to the chest. Defenses just keep getting hindered more and more.
At what point did they accept the fact that injuries will happen. It is a violent sport. The players accept it already
August 5th, 2024 at 3:09 pm
@Hodad “putting the defender’s full weight on the back of the legs”
And how many ACL & PCL injuries do you want?
August 5th, 2024 at 4:54 pm
Funny, I have not been aware that LD is a constant whiner over the years. Guess I have not paid enough attention to him enough during his career.
I am old school I was happy with 14 games as a football fan.
Go Bucs!
August 5th, 2024 at 5:28 pm
Said it once and I’ll say it again Roger Goodell will have the nfl wearing flags before too long. He’s a terrible commissioner who’s ruining the game for player safety. These guys know it’s a physical game and know the consequences
August 5th, 2024 at 5:38 pm
@ SenileSenior:
Oh noooooooooooo,………. you fed the Troll!!!
August 5th, 2024 at 5:59 pm
What’s next? Both teams will have to start wearing panties?
August 5th, 2024 at 7:05 pm
What’s next? Both teams will have to start wearing panties?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Joe Namath wore pantyhose.
August 5th, 2024 at 7:58 pm
All the people that are for these new rule changes and are all for players safety just cracks me up. It’s football you morons it’s a physical sport and will always be until Roger robs us of it and puts the flags on. These guys know it’s a physical sport and can get serious injuries, they know what there signing up for. Just killing the sport slowly but surely is all Goodell is doing. I’d rather go back to 16 game schedules and hard hits on defense and no flags every time the quarterback gets hit. Bunch of softies support these changes not real football players and fans
August 5th, 2024 at 10:12 pm
Exactly, this rule does nothing except allow refs to change the outcomes of games more often.
“Player safety” under the nfl is a joke. This is the same league that denied concussions and CTE were issues, even though they had known for years.
August 6th, 2024 at 12:48 am
Joe, I have to strongly disagree with you on this. If you look at the two hip drop tackles that were made on O.J. Howard in 2018 and 2019, the DB just sat down on the back of his legs. Tearing up his ankles on two different occasions. He didn’t have the same speed afterwards as he came into the league as a result of these two tackles.
August 6th, 2024 at 12:25 pm
Roger will go down in history as the man who ruined the game. they are ruining baseball, have ruined basketball already. RIP
Go Bucs!