The San Francisco 49ers could force the NFL to change its rules
The San Francisco 49ers’ defense may have changed the NFL as it is known in its matchup with the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Divisional round.
The San Francisco 49ers may have changed the NFL as the league is known.
In the NFC Divisional round, the 49ers' defensive back Jimmie Ward completed a hip drop tackle that took Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard out of the game with a leg fracture. Pollard had surgery on his leg on Jan. 24. And he is set to become a free agent this offseason.
If you forgot, here is a look at the play that ended Pollard's season:
In the AFC, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffered a similar injury on a similar style of tackle. He was able to play through the pain and went on to win a Super Bowl, but that hasn't stopped the NFL from tossing around the idea of banning the hip-drop style of tackling.
“And so, the way that we went about it thus far was to take a look at high ankle sprains,” said Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president of public affairs and policy for health and safety initiatives. “Which we know is a really problematic injury, the time loss injury for players and studied that for a subset of plays and said, ‘OK here’s what we see.’ So what we need to look at more teams, more plays, more years, more injuries which is going to take some time to really get an appreciation for it.”
The 49ers are the team that started the conversation surrounding banning the hip-drop tackle because it took Pollard out of the game. And then the injury to Mahomes only validated the league's initial feeling that the hip-drop style of tackling isn't safe for the players.
“I think it’ll be a very active offseason conversation, to look at the mechanism. Obviously, the ‘hip-drop’ tackle is not the only cause of high ankle sprains,” the NFL’s chief medical officer Allen Sills told Maske at the time. “There are certainly other factors.”
It appears that the 49ers find themselves at the center of the NFL's pursuit to make the game safer. The hip-drop tackle that the vaunted 49ers defense utilized changed the outlook of Pollard's playoff game, and it could also change the amount of money he is offered in free agency. But arguably the most notable element of the tackle is that it may change the league as a whole.
Feature image via Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports.
