The best way to bury a controversial rule change is to follow it with the establishment of a policy that’s exponentially more contentious and transcendent. Heady play by the NFL and its team owners.
The league’s new national anthem policy, announced Wednesday, rightfully has garnered the attention of those who work in, cover and call themselves fans of professional football. While that debate of an off-field matter rages on through the summer and into the 2018 season, the NFL's new "Use of Helmet rule" will be lurking, waiting for its chance to thrust itself back into the national conversation.
The new rule, which was approved by NFL team owners Tuesday, has plenty of logic behind it. Simply put: Players use their helmets to initiate contact — or "as weapons," to use the cliché — far too often. For a league that flirted with disaster last season when Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier suffered a devastating spine injury as the result of a poorly formed tackle attempt, such a rule change arguably was vital.
When the idea of the helmet rule was introduced a month ago, observers like us feared it would change the sport as we know it. And while the letter of the rule appears to be a formula for certain officiating controversy come Week 1, the spirit of the rule helps clear the muddiness.
"My understanding of it really is it's that posture they're trying to eliminate," Falcons linebacker coach Jeff Ulbrich said, via the team's website. “It goes back to some of the hits that you’ve seen guys get seriously hurt, going back to Shazier's hit.
"That hit has to be eliminated."
The official language of the rule states that “it is a (15-yard) foul if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent.” The NFL also implemented ejection standards for egregious violations.
Examples of fouls and ejections help in understanding the kinds of plays the league wants to eliminate. (And don’t expect too many ejections. NFL executive VP of football operations Troy Vincent said only three out of 40,000 plays the league reviewed from last season would have resulted in an ejection under the new rule.)
Today owners approved the ejection standards to go along with the Use of the Helmet rule. Here’s the rule explained with video examples from the 2017 @NFL season. pic.twitter.com/Dzs4EWGVdx
— NFL Football Operations (@NFLFootballOps) May 22, 2018
"What we’re really trying to do with a rule like this is we are trying to have the game changed at all levels with respect to use of the helmet," said Falcons team president Rich McKay, who is also chairman of the NFL’s competition committee. “Do I think it’s going to dramatically change the way football is played? No, because I don’t believe the helmet was being used this way in the ’70s and ’80s close to the amount it is being used today — and I think that’s what this rule is trying to get at."
McKay is right. Players have developed dangerous habits that are not necessarily the product of coaching. Players at the lowest levels of football are instructed to “see what they hit.” If the players can’t see what they're hitting, they're using improper form. Sporting News in 2015 explored how players of all ages develop such a false sense of security in helmets despite the technique they're taught.
This rule forces players — defenders, ball-carriers and blockers alike — to try to break those habits. Because that won’t be easy, controversial penalties are inevitable. Those who get angry about a questionable personal foul for a helmet-to-helmet hit will have a hard time accepting a flag for a player who spears an opponent’s hip with the top of his head.
But in this case, what could be a messy transition under a new rule is necessary to develop a cleaner game. Credit the NFL for trying to prevent more Shazier-like plays, even if it might not have had much of a choice.
Now, back to the anthem thing. The logic there is a little more elusive.