There are two pretty controversial plays in the NFL right now that draw ire almost every time we see them: the ‘hip-drop’ tackle and the ‘tush push,’ aka the Eagles’ Brotherly Shove.
Ex-Redskin (among other teams) Troy Vincent is now Roger Goodell’s right-hand man, the EVP of Football Operations for the NFL, and Grant caught up with him at the Super Bowl festivities and asked about those two plays, the future of kickoffs, and Grant’s favorite play: the fumble through the end zone becoming a touchback.
On the kickoff tip, the fair catch kickoff rule was a one-year option, so it’s imperative for the league to figure something out in the vein of player safety.
“At the end of this weekend, it is imperative, a critical mission, that we come up with options for the kickoff play,” Vincent said. “We have all special teams to look at, but you had a one-year only proposal with the fair catch. We've seen the data, we know that we can't go back to where we were a few years back, especially back to the numbers that we saw with head impact in 2019. I do believe the special team coaches and the head coaches will come up with an alternative that still allows the exciting play, and the return game to still be in the game, but we must reduce the concussion rate that we saw of how we got here. We don't want it to be a ceremonial play.”
The XFL’s kickoff rule is one that has been looked at, with the NFL waiting to get injury data on I – but they have, which was ‘super critical,’ but it’s still a work in progress.
“We are dealing with a subset of different players with speed and size, but there are elements of the XFL kickoff return that can apply,” Vincent said. “There are really no touchbacks, or there's a significant penalty when that occurs. But we may be able to tweak a few things to potentially come up with a solution to keep that play in the game.”
What about the ol’ tush push, which had a ridiculous conversion rate for the Birds?
“We’ll discuss that. You saw the play evolve, and I think we accounted for maybe a little under 100 that we personally tagged at the league office,” Vincent said. “You saw it evolve, with some pass plays or boots coming off of that, and what we want to make sure of is not punishing a team that is successful in doing it.”
Philly is the prime example, as their conversion rate was significantly higher than the rest of the league, and it would be tough to ban a play one team has gotten good at but others can, and do, use to different levels of success.
“Everyone else does it, and their batting average is not as hot, but we, the competition committee, took those factors in the play into account,” Vincent said. “It was, hey, let's wait a minute. Again, we have to safeguard on what potentially could be the inevitable of someone just not being able to protect themselves, so we'll continue to look at those aspects, but as we saw the play evolve, I feel like the attitude towards the play kind of changed.”
Next up, Grant’s favorite: the touchback fumble!
“We will look at it. The competition committee can make a recommendation or club could put a playing rule proposal on the floor, but you still need 24 votes,” Vincent said. “That is something we will take a look at – it occurred five times in the regular season and once in the postseason, if I'm not mistaken, so we’ll look at it and see if they want to make an adjustment, but it doesn't happen very often. Many believe that it's too punitive of a penalty now, but it will be discussed.”
The one that might see the most change, though, is the hip-drop tackle.
“We've looked at injury first; you’ve got 20 to 30 times injury on that particular play, and we’ve now studied it enough over the past two seasons where you see the grab, swivel, and as we would say, unload or drop your weight,” Vincent said. “It is in the family of the horse collar tackle.
When you look at the mechanics, this is not to remove the hustle tackle or tackle from behind, but there are three elements that exist when you see it –it’s the grab, the swivel, and then the unloading on the back part of the leg that is really causing significant injuries. We’ve studied this with officials and the committee, and again, the membership will have to make a decision, but there's enough plays and the injury rate is so significant. This is part of the adjustment, but when you watch it, it has all of the traits of the horse collar tackle.”
All that said, how do Vincent and the officials all get everything together, especially coming off a year where penalties per game were way up?
“We want consistency, and that was the aim: how do we get crew 1 through crew 17 o be more consistent, and not using a different philosophy,” Vincent said. “They have to call what they see, but we’re looking for pre-snap fouls, live ball fouls – how do we get to that medium where we get the consistency? Doesn't matter what crew, but it's from crew to crew week in and week out.”