BANNING THE FEB 26 HIP-DROP TACKLE? Hip-drop tackles are becoming more and more common in the NFL, but its use has generated controversy for the past few years.
The NFL has declared that the injury rate during a hip-drop tackle is “20–25 times greater than that of other tackles.” This comes after Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews was hurt during a hip-drop tackle last season, missing seven regular season games and one playoff matchup.
As a result, NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller stated, according to Judy Battista of NFL Media, “it’s certainly my hope” that the league will outlaw hip drops this off-season.
One of the problems is that it appears difficult to describe the tackle precisely enough to establish a regulation or a prohibition around it. Despite the fact that players around the league are still getting injured, the NFL Players Association has rejected calls for the ban.
FEB 24: WEST COAST BIENIEMY HIRED The former offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders is returning to university.
The UCLA Bruins have hired Eric Bieneimy, the former offensive coordinator and associate head coach at Washington, to fill the same position, according to reports from CommanderCountry.com and ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Bieniemy, who was the Bruins’ running backs coach from 2003 to 2005, is back.
Before Super Bowl LVIII, Bieniemy was said to have resumed work with the Kansas City Chiefs following his dismissal from Dan Quinn’s new coaching team as the Commanders’ head coach. However, Bieniemy has now moved in with an old employer, suggesting that the relationship was only temporary.
23 FEB Twelve plaintiffs, including former NFL cornerback Shareece Wright, are suing the Colton Joint Unified School District and Tiffany Strauss-Gordon, the district’s former sports trainer. Wright played in the 2015 and 2016 seasons in Baltimore after being selected by the Chargers in the third round of the 2011 NFL Draft out of USC.
Wright stated on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” that he is speaking forward in the hopes that other children won’t experience this. According to Wright, via ESPN, “the less it’s kept a secret, the harder it is for it to continue to happen.”
When he was fifteen and Strauss-Gordon was twenty-one, the former Raven claimed to have first met. She worked for her father at the time and is the daughter of renowned high school football coach Harold Strauss.
Wright’s attorney, Morgan Stewart, discussed this troubling situation with ESPN. “You’ve got football, you’ve got the coach’s daughter, you’ve got a permissive school environment where it’s allowed to happen,” Stewart said. “I mean, you’ve got sort of a perfect storm of sexual abuse that could be covered up easily.” Wright claimed Strauss-Gordon touched him inappropriately during treatment sessions and was accused of performing oral sex on him.
