After Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier leveled Bengals running back Giovani Bernard with a brutal helmet-to-helmet hit in the playoffs, the NFL said Shazier’s hit was legal. But it won’t be anymore.

 

NFL V.P. of Officiating Dean Blandino said today that under a new interpretation of the league’s rules against hits with the crown of the helmet, hits like Shazier’s will be illegal going forward.

 

Specifically, the new interpretation eliminates the requirement that a defender would have to “line up” his opponent in order for a hit with the crown of the helmet to be a penalty. Starting this season, when a defender lowers his head and forcibly hits with the crown of the helmet, it will be a foul, regardless of the angle the player takes.

 

The new interpretation comes too late for Bernard, but it’s a sensible decision by the NFL: At a time when the league calls brain injuries its greatest concern, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to allow brutal hits like the one Shazier put on Bernard.

 

Ryan Shazier’s hit in playoffs will now be a penalty | ProFootballTalk

Good for the game.

It's virtually impossible to play defense in the NFL.

They should make the same rule for ball carriers. If a RB lowers his head and leads with the crown it should be a penalty. Make these guys learn to quit dropping their head.

If the league is really serious about concussions, they will take another step forward and require wrap up tackles and eliminate launch tackles.

Now if they would only call it on the offense players lowering their head to get the blow to the helmet call it would mean something.

The language "line him up" was stupid in the first place, in my opinion. Because at what point do you say a tackle wasn't lined up? Using a compass, 5 degrees? 10 degrees? It doesn't really matter, because whatever point you ultimately decide on, you have to tell me that 1 degree difference in the approach makes a complete difference in the outcome of the hit. And nobody can do that.

 

The one drawback in the technology that we have today, is that having this crystal clear super-slow-motion camera angles makes it appear that players have all sorts of time to react. It was absurd that Shazier's hit was considered legal. Gio was a sitting duck.

The language "line him up" was stupid in the first place, in my opinion. Because at what point do you say a tackle wasn't lined up? Using a compass, 5 degrees? 10 degrees? It doesn't really matter, because whatever point you ultimately decide on, you have to tell me that 1 degree difference in the approach makes a complete difference in the outcome of the hit. And nobody can do that.

 

The one drawback in the technology that we have today, is that having this crystal clear super-slow-motion camera angles makes it appear that players have all sorts of time to react. It was absurd that Shazier's hit was considered legal. Gio was a sitting duck.

IF the helmet's over 3 inches it's a clean hit. And there will be several next season that will get flagged that don't actually contact the helmet and are called in a split second. Then everyone will be up in arms about it after watching the replay like you outlined. So, until those hits are determined by replay, they won't be consistent.

If this is where you were expecting me to jump in and rant about how dirty the Steelers are you're just going to have to be disappointed. I don't want to say anything negative about Shazier and Mitchell (and their coaches) that would make our Steelers friends upset this close to Easter.

IF the helmet's over 3 inches it's a clean hit. And there will be several next season that will get flagged that don't actually contact the helmet and are called in a split second. Then everyone will be up in arms about it after watching the replay like you outlined. So, until those hits are determined by replay, they won't be consistent.

 

Personally I don't care if the helmet was 3 inches or three feet to the left. If a guy lowers his head like Shazier did and leads with his helmet he is the one who is putting himself at risk and that needs to be outlawed

nothing wrong with a good leverage tackle. lets get the head out of the tackle as much as we can

 

i heard a coach at a football clinic compare tackling to stopping a rolling car. you're not going to physically use your head to stop it, so why use it to stop someone running full speed

Personally I don't care if the helmet was 3 inches or three feet to the left. If a guy lowers his head like Shazier did and leads with his helmet he is the one who is putting himself at risk and that needs to be outlawed

No argument here. But that will never happen on running plays between the tackles. Won't happen when offensive players do it either, so that point may be moot for the foreseeable future.

It's virtually impossible to play defense in the NFL.

 

Nailed it.