For New York Giants rookie Cam Skattebo, the season was looking bright. The fourth-round draft pick already had over 400 yards and 5 touchdowns less than halfway through the season, and was on pace to have a stellar first year… until it was all ripped away. In their game on Oct. 26 against the Eagles, Skattebo was the victim of an illegal hip drop tackle, where the defender swivels and drops all of their weight onto another player, forcing the ball carriers’ legs to violently bend or be crushed. Despite technically being outlawed by the NFL following the end of the 2024 season, the dangerous move has yet to draw a flag, with the league largely ignoring the tackle all together.
Skattebo is far from the only victim of the hip-drop, with NBC Sports revealing that there have been over a dozen instances of the tackle this season, often with catastrophic results. Bucky Irving, a star running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and one of the NFL’s greatest emerging talents suffered a sprained ankle and a shoulder subluxation. Buccaneer fan-favorite Chris Godwin dislocated his ankle just weeks after coming back from a season ending injury from 2024. Joshua Palmer, a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills suffered a severe ankle injury.
All of these players have suffered potentially career-altering injuries, and yet the NFL refuses to step in. Football Zebras announces that there hasn’t been a single flag thrown for a hip-drop tackle despite the fact that they’re often happening and being recognized in games. Additionally, actual, direct punishments for the NFL, who pushed for the tackle to be made a penalty, are exceedingly lacking. Newsweek reveals that the fine for hip-drop tackles is only 17,000 dollars, almost nothing for players who make millions of dollars every year. Even then, many offenders don’t receive the full fine, with past instances of the hip-drop being charged with amounts as low as 4,000 dollars.
It’s time for the NFL to put their foot down. Clearly, fines are unable to prevent players from using the tackle, requiring further action like suspensions. If the league were to start threatening suspensions for hip-drop tackles, it would serve as a much greater deterrent than fines as players don’t want to miss playing. Additionally, by suspending players, the NFL could bring greater attention to the danger of the tackle. Fines don’t make main page news, and often go completely ignored by organizations and fans. However, suspensions of players are much more likely to be noticed by the public, helping hold offending players accountable and pressuring teams to clean up their acts or constantly face negative publicity.
With as much as the NFL has been trying to increase the safety of players, the lack of action on the hip-drop tackle is shocking. Despite the tackle being more than 20 times more likely to injure a player than a normal tackle, it’s still seen week in and week out, increasing the danger of a sport where athletes already face muscle tears, broken bones and CTE. Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the league once said “We will always make sure player health and safety is our No.1 priority.” Now, it’s time for him to prove it by enforcing stricter bans on the NFL’s most dangerous tackle.
