Banks: How will the NFL’s new helmet-contact rule be applied in the trenches? It remains a mystery

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How will the NFL’s new helmet-contact rule be applied in the trenches? It remains a mystery
By Don Banks Jul 13, 2018

Matt Birk attended​ the NFL’s informational meeting on​ the new helmet-contact rule in New York in early​​ May, and even though the former longtime NFL center is considered a smart guy, he still can’t answer the basic question of how it will be enforced when it comes to the line of scrimmage.

“How it’s going to be implemented? Honestly, I don’t know,’’ Birk said Thursday morning, of the new NFL edict that outlaws using the helmet to initiate contact at the risk of 15-yard penalty or even ejection. “There’s always going to be some level of head contact on the line. So it’ll become so subjective. But I don’t think this year they’re going to try and enforce that rule with any play on the line. We’re not even close to figuring that out.’’

And therein lies the potential problem. Just about two weeks shy of all 32 NFL teams starting training camp, the ongoing question of how stringently this new rule will be applied in the trenches is a guessing game.

Birk, once the NFL’s director of football development and currently a special adviser to the league, believes a conversation has been started within the league regarding how to make line play “a little bit safer,’’ but realistically he’s not sure the new helmet rule can be used to modify technique or behavior among linemen.

“I’m not going to say (helmet contact is) unsolvable, but do you have to put your head down to block guys, and do defensive guys have to do the same? Yeah, a lot of times you do,’’ Birk said. “What are you going to do on the goal line? You have to lower your head.

“We’re not talking about changing the game to that degree. What happened is the culture of the game got so much to the point of being about big hits and highlight reels and getting jacked up. Basically, all we’re talking about is getting back to fundamental football, which means guys tackling as opposed to just trying to blow guys up.”

While everyone can understand trying to eradicate the kind of open-field, helmet-first hit that Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier seriously injured himself on last December, the league has sent some mixed messages in regards to how broadly it will interpret the initiation of helmet contact as opposed to the routine incidental helmet contact that happens along the line of scrimmage.

NFL senior vice president of officiating Al Riveron told reporters at the league’s May owners meetings that even a lineman coming out of his stance and initiating contact with his head would be subject to being penalized and ejected. But Atlanta Falcons team president Rich McKay — the chairman of the NFL’s rules-making competition committee — told Sports Illustrated this week the league would study how the rule change affected interior line play this season, adding that the rule was designed to wipe out the helmet-first blows “in space,’’ rather than being aimed at players who “initiate contact in much closer quarters.’’

The new rule promises to be another officiating flashpoint the league is bracing for. Only this weekend will Riveron gather the NFL’s 121 game officials in Dallas for the league’s annual officiating clinic, finally putting real meat on the bone as to the technical requirements of calling the new rule.

“(The new rule) has been communicated poorly, the way it’s been rolled out,’’ Birk said. “Thankfully, there’s a preseason to work through some things, because at the May meeting the officials were kind of just taking it all in just the same as everybody there.’’

Former Chargers center Nick Hardwick played 11 years in the NFL, and he survived in the trenches despite being relatively undersized at 295 pounds. He’s curious as to what he’ll see when football returns in August, convinced he couldn’t have played in the league without being able to initiate contact with his helmet many times a game.

“When I saw the rule come out, I immediately thought I would have had absolutely no chance to succeed in run blocking,’’ Hardwick said. “At the center position, working to your snap hand, I’ve always thought and taught that your helmet actually becomes your second hand. Because with one hand snapping the ball, you’ve got to have something to drive force through and to strike an opponent. For me, an undersized guy, that was my forehead. I was always taught to put my helmet underneath the defender’s chin and try to create leverage with my helmet.

“The NFL’s going to have the realization after about two weeks of preseason play when there’s countless flags thrown trying to enforce this rule at the beginning, they’re going to have to walk it back a touch. Eventually, they’re going to allow linemen to do whatever’s necessary to allow the real show to take place. You can’t block and you can’t get off blocks without being physical.’’

While the devil is always in the details when it comes to NFL rule changes and getting them to accomplish their objective, the quest for greater player safety is a goal no one can realistically oppose. But reality also dictates it’ll be almost impossible to police the line of scrimmage for helmet contact given that there are usually nine bodies lined up just inches away from one another, with the burst of action playing out quickly and with a limited amount of scrutiny by officials.

“I don’t see how they call it unless they wind up having one official assigned to each blocker,’’ said former 14-year NFL offensive tackle Todd Steussie, acknowledging that mathematical impossibility. “They are going to try and look at one or two blocks at a time, but 80 percent of the time they’re going to end up missing it or looking at the wrong guy at that moment.’’

In his experience playing with the Vikings, Panthers, Bucs and Rams, Steussie said the threat of concussion came not from the play-to-play butting of heads found at the line but usually in less typical scenarios. Thus, the player safety standards when it comes to helmet contact should be considered differently for linemen.

“You don’t see a lot of evidence that offensive and defensive linemen get concussions from repetitive trench warfare if you will,’’ he said. “It happens in other situations, like when you’re cut blocking someone and you take a knee to the temple, or you find yourself in the open field and take a blindside hit. It’s not when you’re lined up 12 inches from me and we hit helmets.’’

Changing the way linemen play the game, in order to cut down on the risk of helmet contact, could have unintended consequences, Steussie said, creating new player safety issues.

“Safety is the concern, but be careful what you wish for,’’ he said. “You could wind up getting more offensive linemen coached to cut block on the backside because you can’t risk making helmet contact. What is that going to do to the game’s safety? Knee injuries and lower extremity injuries could increase, because what happens when coaches can’t get the kind of movement (of defensive linemen) they want? Maybe they start resorting to different types of techniques that are actually more harmful to the players the league’s trying to protect?’’

Rushed into acceptance in late March while most were fixated on the new catch rule or the new kickoff rules, the NFL’s new helmet-contact rule has felt like a work in progress this offseason, open to interpretation. Starting next month, when the preseason commences, we’ll start finding out how far its impact extends. For now, the guessing game continues.
 
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