Moving forward, a foul will be called if a player uses the following technique to bring a runner to the ground: (a) grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms; and (b) unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg(s) at or below the knee, per the NFL Communications website.

If a foul is called for a swivel hip-drop tackle, the result is a loss of 15 yards and an automatic first down.

Rich McKay Tries to Defend Banning Hip-Drop Tackle

Competition Committee chairman Rich McKay spoke to NFL media and tried to clear the air as to why the league decided to ban the swivel hip-drop tackle.

“This isn’t the elimination of hip-drop, this is an elimination of a swivel technique that doesn’t get used very often. When it is used, it is incredibly injurious to the runner — the runner is purely defenseless,” McKay explained on March 25. “I’ve heard defenders say before and I hear them — ‘Hey, you’re putting me in a really tough spot, you’re saying I can’t hit here and what do I do?’ My response has as always been, ‘Well, you can’t do that.’ That’s just because the guy you’re hitting is defenseless, has no way to protect himself. So, we’ve got to protect him.

“You’ve got to come up with other ways and you know what, they do,” McKay continued. “Yes, we outlawed the hip-drop, but what you may think are the drag-from-behind where he falls on the – that’s still a tackle. This is only that tackle where the player is lifting themselves in the air and then falling on the legs.”

McKay also stated that all 32 teams will receive a video of what a swivel hip-drop tackle is so there is no confusion.

“This is never practiced; nobody does this in practice. There’s never a player that’s going to use this tactic on a player on his own team in a practice, so they’re never going to see it. They’re only going to see it in the game,” McKay said, via the Associated Press. “We will tell them, ’Listen, this a penalty on the books. You can call it. You got to see all three elements of what’s going on here. You got to see him grab him. You got to see him control them. You got to see him swivel himself up in the air and you got to see him go unweighted. You don’t see it, don’t call it.

“We’re going to take all these tapes that you’ve seen. … we’re going to take them all to the clubs and show them: this is what we don’t want. This is what a foul looks like.”

NFLPA Was Opposed to Banning Hip-Drop Tackle

The NFLPA released a statement on March 20 in which they made it known they were opposed to the NFL potentially banning the swivel hip-drop tackle.

“The players oppose any attempt by the NFL to implement a rule prohibiting a ‘swivel hip-drop’ tackle,” they wrote. “While the NFLPA remains committed to improvements to our game with health and safety in mind, we cannot support a rule change that causes confusion for us as players, for coaches, for officials, and especially, for fans. We call on the NFL, again, to reconsider implementing this rule.”