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The Latest: Lowering helmet to make hit now 15-yard penalty

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Latest on the NFL Meetings (all times local):

5 p.m.

NFL owners rewrote the rule on using the crown of the helmet, making it a 15-yard penalty to initiate any hit with it.

Rich McKay, chairman of the competition committee, called it "a significant change," noting that it was a "technique too dangerous for the player doing it and the player being hit."

McKay said the tackle made by the Steelers' Ryan Shazier last season that resulted in the linebacker suffering a spinal injury — Shazier underwent spinal stabilization surgery two days later — was not the impetus for the change.