Quote:
Originally Posted by JPhillips
The league estimated that there is currently one tackle per game this rule would impact.
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I remember years ago there was a thread here with a title of something like "RIP NFL", and it was about that new penalty targeting running backs who put their head down outside the tackles to initiate contact.
I think it ended up being called 3 times that year.
The funny thing is that the other alarmist take you used to hear all the time, though not so much anymore, was that the league was doomed because of awareness about concussions. And there are fewer kids playing high school football. The league has tried to mitigate that damage in a lot of different ways (all criticized as turning the league into "flag football"). And I'm sure a lot of older people prefer the 1980's version of the NFL, but, lots of old people feel that way about every sport (and everything else in culture). The league hasn't been hurt at all by any of those changes, and it certainly does have fewer injuries, head or otherwise, than they would have had if they never tried to do anything to evolve the sport.
You hear all the time, "you can't hit high, you can't hit low, you can't fall on the QB, it's impossible to sack them" - but somehow defense players still managed over 1,000 legal sacks last year, basically the same as any other year.