The recent news that the NFL is looking to stop ball carriers from dropping their head to run over a defender is great news indeed. I often marvel that running backs aren't severely injured each time they drop their head to run over a defender. Since I started training defenders to keep their head out of tackles in 1997, I understand better the dynamics at work that prevent ball carriers from experiencing the same types of catastrophic brain, neck and spinal cord injuries defenders experience when they tackle with their head down. If you watch carefully, most of the time during any running play, defenders have to slow down (come under control) and lower their body's center of gravity in anticipation of a ball carrier making a cut to the left, right or drop their head to run over the defender. In the latter instance, the ball carrier has a momentum advantage over the defender. For the most part, the defender is standing still at the point of impact. The defender knows that he will be run over if he stands directly in front of an on charging running back who has his head down, so the defender drops his head as a means of protection.
Enlightenment is here everyone! We are no longer in the Sstone Age when hitting people over the head with a club and dragging them off by their heels was a marriage proposal. All the data is in. The facts are evident for all to see. It's time to start better protecting players from needless injury. That means it's time to start protecting them from closed-minded people who think taking these kinds of techniques out of the game will change the game. YES IT WILL CHANGE THE GAME! It will change the game for the better. Less concussions, less paralysis and less death.
The game of football is a tough game meant to be played by tough people, not barbarians or gladiators trying to kill one another. The introduction of the hard plastic helmet and steel face masks are what turned the head into a weapon. Prior to that, players didn't lead with their head to make tackles, they delivered a blow with their shoulders and locked their arms around ball carriers to bring them to the ground.
This is a great beginning that will trickle down to the Youth and High School ranks.
