5:03 am | August 27, 2018 | Go to Source | Author:
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Kevin SeifertNFL Nation
Flags for the NFL’s controversial helmet rule dropped significantly in Week 3 of the preseason, the first set of games after the league issued a narrow clarification of its intent.
Overall, penalties for lowering the helmet to initiate contact dropped 64 percent, according to ESPN Stats & Information tracking. There were nine penalties in 16 games in Week 3, an average of 0.56 per game.
In the first two weeks of the preseason, officials threw 51 flags in 33 games for an average of 1.55 per game.
Many NFL rule changes peak in frequency during the preseason and then fall into a more sustainable pattern during the early part of the regular season. But the sudden drop in helmet-rule calls could be attributed to a competition committee decision made and announced last Wednesday.
Although the committee declined to change the substance of the rule, it did make clear “that inadvertent or incidental contact with the helmet and/or face mask is not a foul.”
That clarification allowed officials to ignore instances when a player lowered his helmet but largely initiated contact with another part of his body, such as the shoulder or arms.
The rule was never intended to penalize inadvertent or incidental contact, but its wording — “It is a foul if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent” — left open that interpretation.
NFL owners approved the rule, along with changes to the kickoff, in an effort to bring down reported concussions numbers, which peaked at 291 in 2017. The league’s medical staff presented biomechanical research that showed players who lowered their helmets to initiate contact, and as a result straightening their back into a linear posture, increased their chances of suffering a head or neck injury.
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