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NFL owners meet to discuss banning the 'hip-drop' tackle

In NFL news, the National Football League held its December league meeting in Irving, Texas where they discussed a range of topics like the 'Tush Push' play and the upcoming Super Bowl. One of the biggest items on their agenda, however, was what should be done with the 'hip-drop' tackle.

This has been a huge topic of discussion in the NFL -- especially after Mark Andrews sustained a season-ending lower leg injury after being 'hip-drop' tackled by Cincinnati Bengals linebacker, Logan Wilson. Commissioner Roger Goodell is in favor of eliminating this tackling style from the NFL. Here's what he had to say, per Nick Shook of NFL.com:

""Hip drop, I would tell you, I think we all should work to get that out of the game. You see it escalated in the number of times it occurred this season. The injury can be very devastating. We saw that also. It's not just happening at the NFL level. It's also happening at other levels. (It's) something I feel like we've got to work very hard to get that removed this spring.""

- Roger Goodell via NFL.com

While owners, teams, and the NFLPA are all about player safety, this could send us down a whole new rabbit hole that we haven't seen before. The biggest debate over the hip-drop tackle is that it's such a subjective judgment call, and skeptics of a rule change are afraid that it won't be called consistently in the NFL.

Eliminating this type of tackle would also make NFL defenders walk on eggshells, as they already have to avoid touching the facemask or grabbing the back of the shoulder pads when ball carriers are trying to elude them. The NFL did not implement a rule change, but we could be heading that way and one could be in place before the start of the 2024 season.