Months after the NFL adopted a significant new rule about how players can use their helmets, the league is providing some clarity.
The NFL published a video today showing examples of specific plays that would be penalties under the new rule.
The league’s basic explanation of the rule is, “It is a foul if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent.”
Most significantly, the league says players will be ejected if a hit meets the following standards: The player lowers his helmet to establish a linear body posture prior to initiating and making contact with the helmet, the player delivering the blow had an unobstructed path to his opponent and the contact was clearly avoidable because the player delivering the blow had other options.
There’s still some room for interpretation here -- two different officials might look at the same hit and have different ideas about whether “the player delivering the blow had other options” -- but there’s at least some more clarity now than there was previously.
