Football Rule Changes: The Hip Drop Tackle In The NFL Being Banned Will Surely Cause Chaos, But At Least The Eye In The Sky Can Now Overturn Blatant Roughing The Passer And Intentional Grounding Fuck Ups

We got big news across the NFL today with some rule changes being approved for the upcoming season. Change can be good, but can also be a disaster. There were a ton of people who were against the MLB pitch clock arrival only to fall in love with it once it was seen in the flesh. Sometimes you just have to give things a chance. Other times we know from the jump that it will create more headaches and anger. Usually with the NFL, when it comes to player safety changes it's a full blown disaster. Let's see what we got. 

There will be three significant changes, with the first being you get a third challenge just for going 1/2 with your first two challenges. 

Don't really hate it. If you're in the crowd of hate game stoppages for reviews I imagine you're against this. I kinda wish you never ran out of challenges as long as you were right. Would be incredible theater if a head coach just kept running up the score on the refs and dunking on them with challenges.. Why should you be penalized if you keep calling out the refs for their mistakes?

The second change may result in a full-on shit show. You can no longer execute a hip drop tackle. So what's a hip drop tackle you might ask? Along these videos to enlighten you. 

Alright I'm not gonna lie, I don't know how you're banning those kind of tackles. Some didn't look illegal at all, just football. Now "just football" is a hell of a lot different than it was even ten years ago. Obviously this is all being enforced under the movement of player safety. But how much safer is this making the game you ask? 

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The NFL will do anything and everything they can to make playing defense harder/more illegal, and safer for the flashy offensive skill players. Now that hip drop tackling is out, they'll find something else that makes the game unsafe. Newsflash: playing football is dangerous. Aside from transitioning to flag football, you will probably get hurt playing the game. It's just how it is. You got to be a little crazy to play the sport. Once you agree to that, everything should be fair game. The more these kind of rules come into play, the worse the product will be. 

Here's the official language of what is now illegal. 

Phrasing it that it's only illegal when you trap a player's legs makes it a little easier to swallow, but here's the problem. After how bad refs were in 2023, we're now giving them MORE POWER to ruin games? Forcing them to make additional real time judgement calls that have the chance to swing games all over over the place is just asking for constant migraines. We really expect refs to understand what is and isn't a legal tackle? JJ Watt seemed to be thrilled with the change. 

While that sounds really bad, how about some good news to help relax? Sure thing. 

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FINALLY! I feel like with all the bad that came from refs in 2023, the replay assistant/eye in the sky has been a nice addition to the game. Obvious fuck ups with spotting the ball, fumbles, completed passes, boundary plays, and clock were allowed to be overruled by a guy watching the game from above with TVs at their disposal. The adjustments happened quick and helped clean up the idiot refs brain farts. Now that person's authority will be expanded to poorly called roughing the passer and intentional grounding. While they state that it's for blatantly obvious missed calls, that's still a win. Baby steps. For whatever reason it felt like there were more obvious misses on those sort of plays than ever last season. I don't need a game stopping for reviews as much as we get at the end of basketball games, but a little help for the refs here is very welcomed. 

This isn't me advocating for more things to go the Chiefs' way, but if we can prevent awful calls like this deciding games then we'll be better for it. There have been way too many of these calls lately and they must stop. 

So in summation. More challenges? Fine. Hip drop tackle ban? An atrocity that could potentially lead to an uprising from fans. Eye in sky being expanded to roughing passer and intentional grounding? Terrific. 

One last thing. I get that player safety is the driving force with everything the NFL does now, so how about they make the full transition to grass? 15 players got hurt from hip drop tackles last season. I'm willing to bet more than double at least were taken out because of turf. Honestly MetLife's turf alone might account for that number. How everyone isn't on grass these days is beyond me. BAN THE TURF!