Helmet hits will bring ejections in ’18
The NFL has passed a new rule for this season that says any player who initiates contact with his helmets is subject to ejection after an in-game video review that will be decided in New York.
Al Riveron, the league’s head of officiating, said a foul can be called regardless of where on the body — not just the head or neck area — that one player hits another with his helmet. The rule is not position-specific, so offensive players will be subject to the same criteria as defensive players.
“This is about eliminating unnecessary use of the helmet,” Riveron said yesterday at the NFL spring meetings.
If a player is ejected, Riveron and his staff in New York will use network camera angles to determine if the ejection is necessary. He promised that games will not become “an ejection fest” every week.
“Immediately when I learn in New York that there’s an ejection, I will ask the network to give me everything you’ve got,” Riveron said. “I will take a look at it, I will rule on it and I will say yes, he’s ejected, (or) no, leave him in the game.
“Play will stop, and we will expedite it. That’s why we won’t have the referee come over and we’re not going to get the replay official involved,” Riveron said. “The only way the replay official will be involved is he will call it and immediately tell the command center, we have an ejection on ‘No. 22 White.’”
Atlanta Falcons CEO Rich McKay, the head of the league’s competition committee, said the league had conference calls and a webinar with every coaching staff in the league last week to tell them to begin teaching a new, safer technique.
McKay said the rule passed after the league looked at tens of thousands of examples on film to determine how to reduce concussions. Contact that’s made by leading with the helmet no longer has a place in the NFL.
“We have always learned don’t put your neck at risk and everything else,” he said. “Now we’ve taken it a step further and said that we need to teach it out of the game and put a rule in and get it out of the game.”
The rule applies to linemen, too. They can not lower the helmet to initiate contact.
Along with this rule change, the NFL approved a new owner for the Carolina Panthers, and took steps to spice up kickoffs.
Still to be resolved: a much more contentious issue.
What to do, if anything, about players who kneel during the national anthem?
“We recognize with our visibility and the interest itself that it’s taken a life of its own,” Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said.
ACL fells Chargers TE
Chargers tight end Hunter Henry tore an anterior cruciate ligament during practice, likely sidelining him for next season. Hunter, a secondround pick in 2016, had 45 receptions for 579 yards and four TDs last season.
Jets trade away QB
Christian Hackenberg spent his final day with the New York Jets much as he did in his first two seasons: As a spectator.
The Jets traded the 23-year-old quarterback to the Oakland Raiders for a conditional seventh-round draft pick next year, ending Hackenberg’s tenure with the team before he ever took a regular-season snap.
Hackenberg was a second-round pick out of Penn State in 2016, but never played a regular-season snap for the Jets. The 23-year-old quarterback was clearly No. 4 on New York’s depth chart, behind veterans Josh McCown and Teddy Bridgewater and first-rounder Sam Darnold.
The Philadelphia Eagles have released starting linebacker Mychal Kendricks after six seasons with the team. The cost-cutting move came after linebacker Paul Worrilow was lost for the season with a torn ACL on the first day of OTAs . ...
The Cardinals released cornerback Marcus Williams.
Harris suspended
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Demetrius Harris was suspended one game without pay by the NFL for violating its substance abuse policy . . . .
Los Angeles Rams sixthround pick John Kelly has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay court costs but will have his misdemeanor drug charge dismissed if he avoids trouble for a year.