Among the safety initiatives coming to the NFL this season include safer helmets and cleats, the banning of some practice drills and the elimination of blindside blocks to any part of a defender’s body. The NFL’s executive vice president of health and safety initiatives, Jeff Miller, discussed these changes in an interview with the Toronto Sun’s John Kryk.
In regards to helmets, the NFL ranked the brands of helmets and gave them ratings from green (safest) to red (least safe). Those 11 helmet models that received a red listing were banned for the 2019 season. In 2018, less than 40 players wore a red helmet while 74 percent were in greens, according to Kryk.
“It is one of the pillars of our 2019 concussion-reduction strategy — to move the 26% of the league’s players still wearing either yellow or red helmets into green,” Miller said. “We know that 32 players who were in the red have to move into the better-performing helmets, but we’re also spending time and effort with the clubs to get those who were in yellow into green, because those are the helmets that test best in the laboratory, and there is a correlation with how those performed on the field.”
Miller also said that the punt has become the play with the highest rate of injuries. To help reduce that rate, the NFL is instituting a ban on the blindside block.
“We shared this information with the competition committee, and they came back and not only eliminated blind-side blocks, and broadened the (offending action) on the punt, but also prohibited the blind-side block on all other plays.”
Miller also discussed at length the banning of drills, such as the Oklahoma drill, in practices and a similar rating system for cleats that it already uses on helmets.
Let’s play flag football…… NFL is slowly killing itself.
Yeah those wussies should have to use helmets that won’t protect them from long term brain damage
While we are at it why not just make the league flag football. This is getting beyond ridiculous of everything you cannot do. I understand outlying blows to the head as well as the knees and below. But, every year there is a new rule where you cannot hit a player it is ridiculous and stupid and needs to stop as I said the head and the knees is completely justified but now no blindside blocks I know you can’t leave what your helmet to any part of the body is just getting out of hand.
The trump crowd is out complaining about the player safety initiatives
A player is expecting contact on the field but at times running out of bounds actually seems more dangerous. I can’t understand why there are about 200 people on the sidelines that seem to have no connection to the team at all. Yeah, some have media credentials or are photographers but it’s excessive. Then there are the advertising obstacles, wired cables etc. that have to be hurdled to avoid injury. Safety measures shouldn’t be limited only to the playing field.