As the new season approaches, the NFL Competition Committee have made two major changes to the rules and then approved a few other changes for the upcoming year.

The most talked about change is to the kickoff rules. This change is designed to promote more returns and is theorized to work because the teams will be lined up closer together. Logistically, if you are elbow to elbow with a group of people, it is harder to break out and gain speed. Therefore, the receiving team has an even larger chance of recovering and proceeding with the ball.

The second major change is the elimination of the hip-drop-tackle being a legal defense tactic. This move is used as a defender grabs onto the receiver and rotates their hips to drop onto the receiver’s legs in order to stop them. This form of tackling caused a lot of problems like confusion on what constitutes unnecessary roughness and simply causing injuries. Injuries could include any sort of leg, ankle, or foot injury from the weight of the defender or the awkward fall not leaving room for the receiver to defend themselves and getting a concussion. Concussions alone are and have been a huge problem with playing football.