NFL owners vote to ban hip-drop tackle at Annual League Meeting

The hip-drop tackle is officially illegal.

Owners banned the hip-drop tackle on Monday morning during the Annual League Meeting in Orlando, Fla., the league announced.

The NFL's Competition Committee was unanimous in their voice that the tackle was one the league wanted out of the game. Owners agreed.

The official rule is as follows:

ARTICLE 18. HIP-DROP TACKLE. It is a foul if a player uses the following technique to bring a runner to the ground:

(a) grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner with both arms; and

(b) 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.

Penalty: For a Hip-Drop Tackle: Loss of 15 yards and an automatic first down.

Last week, as the NFLPA spoke out against banning the hip-drop tackle, NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent combatted the resistance, noting it was something the league wanted "to get out of the game."

"The greatest asset for any athlete is durability and availability," Vincent said at the time. "When you have a play that has a 20-25 times the injury rate, it doesn't allow you to fulfill your dreams."

That high injury rate keyed discussions surrounding the hip-drop tackle and led the league to take action.

The decision makes life more difficult for defenders, many of whom decried the ban as a further obstacle to their work.

"For me, no, none whatsoever," NFL Competition Committee chairman Rich McKay said Monday when asked if there were any unintended consequences they've tried to troubleshoot with the new rule. "Because this isn't the elimination of hip-drop, this is an elimination of a swivel technique that doesn't get used very often. When it is used, it is