The NFL competition committee unanimously agreed to ban hip-drop tackles, a technique by the defensive player who wraps his arms around the offensive player and becomes dead weight while dropping to the ground.
This was especially important to the Ravens because tight end Mark Andrews suffered a fractured fibula and ligament damage in his left ankle against Cincinnati on a controversial hip-drop tackle by Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson on November 16th. Andrews, who missed six games because of the injury, did not believe Wilson intentionally tried to hurt him with the tackle.
“It was kind of just an unfortunate event,” Andrews said. “I’m going to let everybody else do their thing. If they want to ban the tackle, [that’s] fine, but I’m going to go out there and play hard no matter what. I don’t blame the guy. He’s just playing ball.”
The NFL reported that hip-drop tackles resulted in an injury rate up to 25 times higher than on tackles when it is not used.
