Retired Australian rugby great and Fox League expert Matty Johns gets it.
He can see why there is a growing movement led by commissioner Roger Goodell to make a controversial change to the way defenders tackle in the NFL.
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He saw the same thing happen in the National Rugby League (NRL) in Australia. The “hip-drop tackle” was leaving injured players all over the pitch.
The dangerous tackle had to be eliminated in his sport, and he thinks the same needs to happen in the NFL.
“Absolutely. Not a doubt in the world,’’ Johns told The Post.
“What it’s doing is ruining people’s careers. It leads to really bad ACL injuries, broken legs, horrendous ankle injuries. So I think it’s a no-brainer.’’
The hip-drop tackle has become top of mind this NFL season as players such as Ravens tight end Mark Andrews, Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith and Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill have sustained injuries as a result of the tackle.
It occurs when a defensive player uses his body weight on the legs of the ball carrier by leading with his hip. It is often a technique applied by smaller players to take down bigger players.
Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president of communications, public affairs and policy, has said that the injury rate for this tackle is 25 times higher than other tackling methods.
While at the owners meetings earlier this week, Goodell said, “We should all work to get that out of the game.”
Johns has been in Vegas, recently watching the NFL up close.
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The NRL will be opening its season in the U.S. for the first time, playing a double-header at Allegiant Stadium on March 2, just a couple of weeks after the Super Bowl is played there.
As he’s watched these games, Johns can understand why the NFL needs to follow the NRL’s lead.
But he also realises implementing this change won’t be simple, especially in the beginning.
“In the early days, there were some of the most mean-spirited things that I’ve ever seen,’’ Johns recalled.
“Quite like the NFL, they’ve got a players union. My thing was, I thought that the players union should have stepped in and basically stopped players doing it to their fellow professionals.
“We’ve had some horrendous injuries from the hip-drop tackle. I know you guys had clipping and all that stuff back in the day. But the hip drop, it’s been bad. We’ve had guys that have had career-threatening injuries.’’
One of the biggest challenges, Johns said, is “it’s really difficult because it’s hard to divide between deliberate and accidental.’’
In the NRL, it doesn’t matter. If you use you the hip-drop technique you are automatically suspended.
“It’s worked well,’’ Johns said.
“What it’s done — it’s made defenders work on their technique. One of the problems in our game as well, a player’s ruled down, it’s a catch, as opposed to drop and drive. It’s a catch. When that happens, it lends itself to bad technique. They swing around and end up on the legs. A lot of it is not deliberate, but it’s bad technique. That’s the conclusion.
“[But] it’s really split the game in our country because people are going, ‘He didn’t mean it, it just happened, it was a total accident.’ Well, that doesn’t wash anymore in the NRL. They say now it’s poor technique.
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“It’s a little bit like guys don’t go out there to hit other guys in the head in our game. It’s accidental, but you still get penalised. You still serve suspensions because of that even though it wasn’t deliberate. It’s the same as the hip drop. You might not have meant it, but it’s bad technique and you serve a suspension for it.’’
Among the complaints from NFL players and coaches about the potential ban have been about how will the league police the tackles.
Many, such as Jets star defensive back D.J. Reed, believe all these rule changes are taking the toughness out of the sport.
“I know it’s an offensive league, but, damn, they’re going to turn this s–t into flag football,’’ Reed told The Post on Thursday when notified of Goodell’s desire to ban the tackle next season. “I’m reacting this way because I didn’t know about this. Tom Brady said it. You heard Tom Brady’s quote. Football is not football anymore. Soft.”
Johns has heard these arguments before, but he thinks it’s time the players and the league understand this isn’t about going soft, it’s about reducing injuries and lengthening careers.
“I think what it will lead to — I think it’ll lead to teams changing their technique on defence,’’ he said.
“I think early on in our game, I actually think it was coached. Nowadays, I don’t think it is coached. I think really all of it is bad technique.“The NFL needs to have zero tolerance for it. It doesn’t matter whether it’s accidental. You cannot swing around and land on the guy’s legs. People go, ‘Yeah, but he didn’t mean to do it.’ Well, when you hit a guy in the head, 99 per cent of the time the guys don’t mean to do it, but nonetheless if you do it, you serve a suspension.’’
This story originally appeared on the New York Post and has been reposted with permission
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