The NFL owners meeting wrapped up with a controversy swirling around a new helmet-to-helmet rule on Wednesday.
It’s on to Atlanta, where the next league meeting will be held May 21-23. The sale of the Carolina Panthers likely will be voted on and a possible tour of some facilities for Super Bowl LIII, which will be held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Feb. 3, 2019.
“We’re excited about the Super Bowl coming to Atlanta,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said during a press conference.
The frightening injury to Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ryan Shazier and the 291 concussions — including four to Atlanta Falcons in running back Devonta Freeman (two), right tackle Ryan Schrader and running back Tevin Coleman — led to the passage of the new rule against players, offensive or defensive, lowering their helmets.
The owners rewrote the helmet-to-helmet rule, making it a 15-yard penalty for any player to lower his head to initiate any hit with the helmet.
Falcons president Rich McKay, chair of the league’s competition committee, called it a significant change and noted that that current style of play was a "technique too dangerous for the player doing it and the player being hit."
Offenders could be disqualified, but owners did not call for automatic ejection on those plays. In college football, a player penalized for targeting is ejected if a replay affirms the violation.
Dr. Allen Sills, NFL chief medical officer, issued a “call to action” at the scouting combine in February. The league said they had input from the player’s union, the NFLPA, to help with the concussion and helmet-to-helmet problem.
“Our focus is how to take the head out of the game and make sure we’re using the helmet as protection and it’s not being used as a weapon,” Goodell said.
The NFL's May meetings in Atlanta, will include another full agenda which may include discussions of changes to the league's national anthem policy and the awarding the 2019 and 2020 drafts to two of the five finalist cities in addition to the sale of the Panthers.
Goodell would not speculate on whether the investigation into the conduct of current Carolina owner Jerry Richardson would be completed before the sale.
Goodell said that there was no discussion about the league’s national anthem policy except for how best the league could help players achieve their social action goals.
The NFL Network will move into new state of the art facilities in Inglewood, California.
The league is also planning on how to celebrate its 100-year anniversary. The league was founded Sept. 17, 1920 in Canton, Ohio.
After complaints by the Fritz Pollard Alliance over the hiring of Jon Gruden by the Oakland Raiders, Goodell acknowledged that the Rooney Rule needs to be reviewed and strengthen.
However, the helmet-to-helmet rule was a major change for the league at these meetings.
Several players including Washington Redskins safety D.J. Swearinger took to Twitter to complain.
Falcons coach Dan Quinn and Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll have been teaching a rugby-style tackling method for at least the past seven years that keeps the head out of the play. Other teams will likely have to follow the lead of the Falcons and the Seahawks.
“There’s still a great deal of communication and education that still needs to take place,” Goodell said. “We’ll be doing that over the next 90 days including going to each club, having players, coaches, medical staff, all hands on deck at each club to go through the changes.”
The owners are supportive of the change.
"We've done so much research and investigation on what creates the real concussive plays in the NFL," Eagles owner Jeff Lurie said. “And it became obvious that so many of the plays are through the lowering of the helmet and using the helmet as a weapon."
In addition to passing a new rule on what constitutes a reception, the league also eliminated the requirement that a team that scores a winning touchdown at the end of regulation kick the extra point or go for a two-point conversion.
