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The NFL has ramped up its efforts in recent years to reduce the number of helmet-to-helmet collisions. They solidified that notion by installing a new rule that has caused some confusion around the league.
The NFL has now banned players from lowering their head to initiate contact. Commissioner Roger Goodell hopes the new rule can essentially take any use of the head out of the game, per Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk:
“Our focus is how to take the head out of the game and make sure we’re using the helmet as protection, and it’s not being used as a weapon, and that’s the core of what we’re focused on, and I think we made a tremendous amount of progress on that this week,” Goodell said. “There’s still a great deal of communication and education that still needs to take place. We’ll be doing that over the next 90 days including going to each club, having players, coaches, medical staff, all hands on deck at each club to go through the changes.”
It is no secret that the NFL is plagued with issues surrounding CTE. As a result, they have tried to tone down the number of instances in which helmet-to-helmet contact is initiated as players get bigger, stronger, and faster.
However, the new ruling has been met with some controversy as to how strongly it will be upheld during the games. Defensive players have already struggled heavily with having to adjust their hits within the blink of an eye.
That said, there is concern that the decision will force them to go much lower on offensive players than they normally would. As controversial as it may be, there are some that would rather get hit up high and miss a few games than down low where they could suffer a career-threatening injury.
