ORLANDO, Fla. — The writing was on the wall when the NFL began publicizing its data.
The hip-drop tackle, league executives began saying last year, inflicted injury at 25 times the rate of the average tackle.
And this wasn’t just any injury, the league’s health and safety committee said. This was a time-loss injury.
Fifteen times last season — nearly once a week in a sport where each team plays 17 regular-season games — a player was tackled via what the league is now calling a “swivel” hip-drop tackle, and that player missed game time due to the tackle.