NFL, players at odds over controversial hip-drop tackle

The “tush push” isn’t the only controversial play fueling conversations this NFL offseason.

Ahead of next week’s league meeting in Orlando, the NFLPA urged NFL owners not to prohibit the hip-drop tackle, stating in part how the organization “cannot support a rule change that causes confusion” for those involved in the game.

“While the NFLPA remains committed to improvements to our game with health and safety in mind, we cannot support a rule change that causes confusion for us as players, for coaches, for officials and especially, for fans,” the NFLPA said in a statement Wednesday. “We call on the NFL, again, to reconsider implementing this rule.”

The hip-drop tackle is one of the rule-change proposals on the table, with the league looking to implement a 15-yard penalty if committed in a game.

If a player “grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms; and unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg(s) at or below the knee,” it would call for a penalty, per the competition committee.

The NFLPA, among others, is “worried about the potential subjectivity of the call,” according to CBS Sports.