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Why the NFL needs to ban the shoulder charge

An American football coach had some sensational sex advice for his players. (AAP)
Roar Guru
16th December, 2014
11

I mused recently on Twitter that it was time for the NFL to completely ban shoulder charges. It sparked a heated debate among my millions of followers, some supporting the move, others fiercely against it.

Okay, you got me, I’m not Adam Schefter and I don’t have more than three million followers.

I didn’t get a single response from my small number of followers but it is something that has been bugging me in recent weeks, so much so that I felt the need to write about it.

The NFL has undergone significant cultural change over the past decade as the American public has become more and more aware of the dangers of concussions. The huge hits of the 1980s and ’90s are virtually gone from the game and receivers can now run across the middle of the field without a fear of getting absolutely poleaxed.

The controversy surrounding the NFL’s rule changes and increased fines and suspensions for helmet to helmet hits of four to five years ago now seems like a distant memory. The player adjustment that the NFL continually spoke about during this period has occurred and all NFL players have adjusted their hitting zones in line with the new rules. Keep that thought in mind.

If you’re a regular reader of my articles – I don’t have many but I know there’s at least one of you out there – you would know that I recently wrote about the importance of avoiding an overreaction to the increase in concussions in professional sports around the world.

This article may seem like exactly that, an overreaction, and it may be. However, there is so much potential for a shoulder charge to go wrong that I don’t feel it is an overreaction, rather I feel it is a necessary precaution to ensure the safety of the players who put their body on the line every week.

It has become clear while watching the NFL throughout the season that players have learnt not to lead with the head when tackling defenceless receivers. Players are now instead turning their body and leading with the shoulder, and only the shoulder. No arms.

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Unfortunately, when leading with the shoulder the head does not disappear, it is still attached to the body and still covered by a hard plastic shell. There have been so many times this year where defenders have led with their shoulder and contact to the head has followed. They’re not doing it deliberately, but the contact is very difficult to avoid.

I can hear you shouting from the rooftops already. This cannot happen, it will change the entire fabric of the game. The NFL will never be the same. The game is turning soft. We can’t be the NFL without professional sized hits.

This is all garbage that we have heard so many times it’s getting boring. I’ve heard it surrounding the NFL for the past half-decade and I’ve heard it here in Australia following the banning of the shoulder charge in the National Rugby League.

The NFL isn’t soft just because we can’t hit the head. It isn’t impossible to deliver a brutal hit when using arms in the tackle and the tackle is much safer. Rugby union has known this for years and rugby league is slowly starting to learn this. Watch any YouTube compilation video of NFL hits and you will see numerous tackles with arms. These tackles are no less vicious than those with just the shoulder, yet they are far less common.

Much of the reason for the low rate of big arms tackles is due to very poor tackling technique. The fact that NFL teams currently have to retrain their defenders how to tackle with arms is highly concerning and suggests that something is wrong somewhere along the development chain.

The Seattle Seahawks are leading the league in teaching the “rugby style tackle”, however they are still teaching their defenders how to tackle with no arms and even though they are instructing players to keep the head out of the way, it’s not as simple as that.

For those unfamiliar with the rugby style tackle, this style of tackle involves using the shoulder as the first point of contact with the body of the opponent but instead of keeping the arms tucked in and hoping the head is protected, the arms are shot through and wrapped around the body of the opponent.

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The reason tackling with arms is so much safer than a shoulder charge is because the head follows the arms through and is tucked up against the side of the body of the defender. In this position, if executed correctly, the head has minimal chance of coming into contact with the opponent’s head.

That is not to say that rugby style tackles cannot go wrong, they often do, just that there is less likelihood of them going wrong and fewer outcomes are determined by chance.

Prior to the start of the 2012 NRL season, the players were delivered what was effectively an ultimatum. Prove to the league that you can execute a shoulder charge without making contact to the head and the shoulder charge will remain, if you can’t, it will be banned.

They players couldn’t, too often the upright nature of the shoulder charge meant that defensive players were unable to adjust to a change in body position of the ball runner, something that is possible with the traditional tackle, and contact with the head was made. As a result, amid a significant uproar, the NRL banned the shoulder charge prior to the 2013 season.

There have been some teething problems but ultimately the shoulder charge has been removed from the game and rugby league is safer for it. The NFL has to consider something similar, prove shoulder charges can be executed without contact to the head or see it removed from the game.

The reason players are able to adjust to change in the attacker’s body position when attempting to make a traditional tackle is due to two main factors, the upright body position of defenders and footwork.

Footwork is an oft-overlooked aspect of defence but potentially the most important. If you don’t have good footwork you will never make an individual open field tackle. The keys to footwork are keeping the feet moving, short steps to enable a quick change of direction and ensuring the lead foot is placed as close to the attacker as possible when making the tackle to ensure solid contact is made with the shoulder.

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This is basically non-existent in the NFL and largely not necessary when attempting a shoulder charge. Because NFL players don’t have the footwork to make traditional tackles, they choose to make the less technical shoulder charge. Coaches have to develop their defensive players’ tackling technique in order to drive increased safety in the league.

The NFL is a tough, brutal league that is battling a tug of war between evolving with modern standards and staying true to tradition. They have already evolved by banning a number of tackles, including helmet-to-helmet hits of defensive receivers.

This change was controversial at the time but has now been accepted as a part of the modern game. The banning of the shoulder charge, tackling without the use of the arms, should follow. It will be controversial initially, but can only lead to a safer league.

Twitter: @fromthesheds

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