ORLANDO — After this week's annual NFL meeting, everyone should now understand exactly what constitutes a catch. The league's next challenge: Clearly defining a far more radical change that will alter the way an entire sport is played.
This isn't hyperbole. NFL football as we know it may never be the same depending upon what becomes of the "lowering-of-the-helmet" ban approved Tuesday by team owners.
The exact wording of the rule will be completed later in the offseason. But as explained by NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay, the league is shifting from "situational protection" shielding defenseless pass-catchers and long snappers to covering “all players at all times."
A 15-yard penalty will be assessed with possible ejection for egregious use-of-helmet violations.
"If you lower your head to initiate contact and you initiate, that's a foul," McKay told co-host Mark Dominik and me Tuesday night on SiriusXM NFL Radio. "Really what we're looking at are space plays. If you're there to receive a blow, that’s different. We're not saying you can't protect yourself. But if you're going to go forward and bring your head and initiate contact, yes (it’s prohibited)."
Think about what this means.
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The ball carrier who leads with his head and collides with a defensive player while charging toward the goal line trying to score? That "absolutely" would be a foul, per McKay.
The same likely will go for contact initiated by a blocker on running plays, provided the use of a helmet in such fashion is even detected by officiating crews already assigned the difficult task of monitoring other aspects of close in-line play.
"These guys need to keep their head and eyes up," McKay said of the offensive linemen. "We're definitely going to make it a point of emphasis for all that. It is harder to do for them, no question."
More questions about specific scenarios — and shock — were the initial responses among players, media and fans when they learned such a major shift was occurring. The reaction was understandable since it appears the NFL intentionally tried to keep the topic from entering the arena for public debate heading into the owners meeting.
After the rule's passage, two exasperated long-time NFL media insiders told me they feared we were no longer covering football, per se, but rugby.
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Richard Sherman told USA Today the change is “ridiculous” and compared it to “telling a driver if you touch the lane lines, you’re getting a ticket. (It’s) gonna lead to more lower-extremity injuries."
Even offensive players were baffled. For example, Oakland’s Derek Carr posted a Tweet asking, “So what about QB sneaks?"
More clarity should come at the NFL’s next league meeting in May as finishing touches are placed on the upcoming season's rulebook. There already is speculation in league circles that the "lowering-the-helmet" rule will be heavily enforced by officials during the preseason as a teaching tool/warning, then enforced less when the game outcomes matter.
About the only thing we know for sure is the impetus for why the NFL is making this happen: player safety and the ancillary elements that go with it from a financial standpoint, such as lawsuits and erosion of the game's popularity among youth (and their parents) concerned about suffering brain trauma.
Let’s not forget, too, that severe injuries or — heaven forbid — an on-field death isn't exactly good for promoting business or NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's perpetual "the-game-has-never-been-safer" mantra.
A scary reminder of a potential doomsday scenario came last December, when Pittsburgh linebacker Ryan Shazier suffered temporary paralysis through spinal cord damage from which he is still recovering. Shazier was hurt after using poor tackling technique in leading with his head down and then colliding awkwardly with Cincinnati wide receiver Josh Malone.
McKay said the league’s concussion rate from helmet-to-helmet contact had risen for three straight seasons, which spurred the change for 2018.
"We saw on the tape a very consistent pattern that creating this is the dangerous action by a player lowering their head creating a different spine angle and delivering a blow," McKay said. “The blow is equally as dangerous to the person delivering it as the person it gets delivered to."
McKay said the NFL consulted with the NCAA, which instituted its own player protection policy with the controversial 2013 "targeting rule" that leads to ejections of those whom officials determine hit defenseless opponents above the shoulders or used the crown of the helmet in contact.
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"They went back to their notes in the 1940s when the helmet was coming in," McKay said. "There were people who said they were nervous about the helmet and what this may lead to. It’s interesting we’re still talking about that now.
"The helmet by design was a protective devise. With people getting much more comfortable in their necks and ability to deliver a blow, we've allowed the helmet to become more a part of our game. This is a pretty substantial step backward saying take it out."
Or forward-thinking — depending on your view of what should constitute the game itself in a modern-day NFL that continues to look increasingly different than the sport that built the league's popularity in the first place.
Alex Marvez can be heard from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET Wednesday and 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Thursday on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
