Pod E6 Full 2024 NFL Rule Changes

welcome back to the Resurgence athletic podcast this is episode six my name is Dr Lucas noera and my name is Dr Ryan Goodell and today we're going to talk about some new exciting things going on in the NFL NFL it's got some rule changes this year all right so we're going to talk about number one the hip drop tackle Banning hip drop tackles and number two we're going to talk about the new kickoff rules yeah a lot of changes with that that's going to be exciting oh yeah it's going to be a little bit more offense some more kick returns that exciting for the fans that was getting boring I will say that was getting boring watching some of the kick returns cuz I saw some stat on it said only 22% of kickoffs were returned last year that is boring that's insane that's probably expected to then ramp up with these new rules that we're going to go over soon MH absolutely and there's going to be I think they borrowed those rules from the XFL yeah they did they did they did yeah they did they did borrow them from the X FL FL and uh I think they they borrowed the rule on the The Hip drop tackles from from rugby actually rugby yeah so rugby is where it first started that's when you first started to see it I think back in the early 2000s they actually banded in both rugby and football just because of the increased injury risk with that kind of tackle so for the the hip drop tackles for those who don't know what is a hip drop tackle so from my understanding it's when the defender wraps his hands around the the player and then uses a force of like their hips to actually drop down to get the player to to go to the ground but in doing so they kind of trap the leg the knee and the ankle which then causes you know a lot of vulnerability to some of the structures of the knees and the ankles increasing injury risks NFL actually put out a stat as well saying that it's 20 times more likely to sustain an injury with that kind of tackle versus any other tackle right so so if I if I have the ball I'm running down the field I'm getting hit from what the the my backside yep okay so I can't see the guy coming you can't see the guy coming all right so no idea he's there nope so he hits you at the the waist yes wraps his arms around the waist and then drops down on the on your like heels essentially pretty much yes and even in one of the videos that I watched the player or the defender taking the the player down will lift the legs up to even Propel more force and then causing even more you know of a loading of that weight of the person body on the opponent's you know knee and Ankle right cuz you're if you're running full out and you get hit like that you got a lot of momentum going forward and then if you have I mean these guys are heavy they're easily 200 plus pounds and that's coming straight down on your leg while you're moving forward really fast and then just thinking about like the mechanics of that like what are some of the structures getting affected when so definitely like the ligaments of like the knee so you're talking about KCl MCL LCL depending on which force it's coming from most of the time they go into a valgus force where that inner part of the knee kind of drops down to the floor and now if you're putting weight on top of that that player landing on it you're even then more susceptible to injuries there you talk about miniscus injuries some of the lateral ankle ligaments as well um similar to if anyone watched last year's season Mark Andrews this actually hits home for me because he was on my fantasy team lost a couple points there uh he had one of these tackles or he was a victim of victim of one of these tackles okay and when he went down he sustained an injury fractured his fibula and ligamentous damage of the ankle ouch where he was then out for everyone thought he was done for the season but he was only out for about eight to nine weeks and came back on the field helped out my fantasy team I kept him yeah cuz bones heel in that about what eight to 10 week timeline right so he he he fit that right there yeah I get this question a lot with a lot of my athletes and our athletes here is they'll come in they'll tear a ligament break a bone or something you know those are traumatic injuries sure and then they're like oh how did this happen like was this preventable and some no like if you get hit the right way or the right amount of stress is put on your your joint or your ligaments things things are going to you know tear and break and you could have trained EX for years to try to prevent something like that but random things happen in sport and sometimes that just is that's how it goes but then that comes back to like are these preventable injuries yeah you know do they want to incentivize certain types of play based on some of the rules and you know hip drop tackle could be considered you know a little bit of a dirtier type of tackle which kind of begs qu you know if you're out there doing this are you considered a dirty player now right sure so or is it habitual I think it's just trying to break a bad habit right so I think that if you're used to doing these kind of tackles you're out there you know you're competitive you're trying to win the game it's almost second nature so I I think back to soccer so I played soccer in college and it's like if they were to take away slide tackling from me right I wouldn't know what to do in certain situations because I'm so used to like it's my second nature just go in for a slide tackle if the play calls for it but now if you're taking that away for me uh it's going to take some adjustment period for me to actually you know start to take that out of my my way of playing so I wouldn't call them a dirty player I would think it's more just getting used to yeah and the breaking that habit the history and progression of of tackling in the NFL they used to just let you fullon hit each other you know head first and then with the Advent of the concussions and speed of play they were like okay you can't hit with your head anymore or hit the opponent's head and now that might have shifted some things towards hip drop tackling right and now we've lost that so it's this kind of falls into hey how much are we going to take away from the sport are we getting away from what sport actually is this one I mean there is a lot of discussion to be had yeah around it and there's a lot of uh varying opinions but I think from what we mentioned before with like the mechanics of it getting hit from the back like you really don't know you're in a vulnerable position um you know you don't want to see guys get hurt and have to take time out of the exactly the season or especially if they're on your fantasy team yes people don't take too kindly to that right strains sprains or anything like that those are pretty like major injuries and those take some time yeah time to come back from and then we also have the next big rule change for the season oh yeah which is the the kick returns kick returns so kickoffs are changing a lot not a lot of uh kick returns last year and I I saw something else that said only four kick returns for the whole season all games were returned for touchdowns oh four jeez which not not that exciting it just turned into like the kick out off it goes past the end zone and then they just place it at the 20 like I don't think the Special Teams is doing anything out there at that point and so now we got this this Landing zone between the goal line and the 20 yard line so you got to kick it in there right what happens if you kick it in there well depending on where they kick it to the placement of the ball if you kick it off and it doesn't get to The Landing zone so you short kicked it yeah then the ball starts on the 40 yard line okay if you you I believe kick it all the way past like it used to be and you just kicked it over the end zone I believe it goes to the 35 yard line and if it lands in the landing Zone and then bounces out it starts at the 20 yep yep and if it lands in the landing Zone and they catch it you have to return it exactly but the opposing team or the kickoff team is starting on the 40 yd line of the opposing team side so you're on the other team side of the 50 yd line and then the opposing team the receiving team is five yards away from the kicking team so that spacing is not allowing for that High Velocity impact on the kickoff because they used to get momentum and speed as they were kicking off and then there would be a huge Collision down the field which can cause uh higher risk of uh concussions and high velocity injuries and I like we said in the last podcast velocity is correlated with increased injury right I think it's good I think it's good because we're incentivizing more action on the kickoff and also reducing some of the risk things are going to change I I think the Dynamics are going to change special teams coaches are going to have a lot more to uh take into consideration overall I think a good change for the sport it's going to be more exciting for the fans oh yeah I think we're going to get a little bit more action 22% yep and I think we're going to decrease uh some injury risk and I think that's a win-win across the board so I'm not I'm not disappointed with that I mean from an injury standpoint definitely sounds like it's a smart move to go to do you know we want to see our players out there actually getting some playing time not getting injured you know back to my fantasy league I don't want anyone getting injured right you know so it's more excite more excitement less injuries yeah I think it's a a double win when I think about the old kickoffs you remember in uh physics when they're talking about two objects colliding and the opposing forces come together so if you have a I mean they run they can run 20 miles an hour yeah there's NFL guys that can run 20 miles an hour so if and they're going full speed right so if you're going kicking off team bombing down the field going 15 20 miles an hour and then the other guys are coming in and they're maybe moving a little bit or even if they're static yeah have you ever been hit by something moving 20 mph definitely not 20 it's something 200 plus pounds moving 20 M an hour that's going to hurt yeah I know so you decrease that distance down to five yards you can't really pick up a lot of speed within that range I think that's going to change I don't think anyone in peewee football was hitting that I was running that fast did you play pee football I did I did yes how long was your career for two years you didn't make it that long I got very skinny and then I had to I had to quit and then and then you switch to soccer switch to soccer yep probably for the best it wasn't I wasn't very good I I never got to play football no no I never play pick up football but not not not organized but um it's always baseball always baseball that's pretty much the synopsis for the two big rule changes this year and I think those from a playing standpoint are going to be the big ones there's some changes around uh the challenges yep and then maybe one or two other things but from a gameplay standpoint are those are going to be the two major ones this year so in with every season there's always going to be crazy abstract injuries so maybe as the season progresses we'll do some injury highlights here right so that's it for episode number six of the Resurgence Athletics podcast what do you think about these rule changes would uh you change anything else do you not like them comment below let us comment below like comment share uh we need a little dialogue around this because fans are very opinionated about these things and football unlike some of the other sports has a big fantasy sports base to it so this can impact a lot of your leagues out there and uh you know true we got to we got to keep the best guys on your fantasy roster on the field so we don't want to see anybody get EX injured no injuries inj this time right thanks for tuning in thanks for tuning in guys we'll see you next time all right