Baltimore Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith was initially fined for his hit on Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Chris Godwin that resulted in the wide receiver dislocating his ankle. The league determined it was a hip-drop tackle, but Smith appealed the fine from Week 7 and reportedly will have the fine rescinded, according to ESPN.
NFL hearing officer Jordy Nelson rescinded the $16,883 fine for Smith’s alleged unnecessary roughness, per the report. Smith was not penalized for the play during the game, but received the fine afterwards.
Godwin is out for the entire regular season due to the injury. When he suffered the season-ending dislocated ankle, he led the league in receptions with 50, was second in receiving yards at 576 and was tied for third in touchdowns with five.
This was Smith’s first offense of the new hip-drop tackle rule.
The NFL states that hip-drop tackles have an injury rate 20 to 25 times higher than other tackles, and the league spent time to define what the tackle is so it could point it out in a game scenario. If the referees determine that there’s been a hip-drop tackle during a game, they are supposed to enforce a 15-yard penalty.
The rulebook defines a hip-drop tackle as a defender grabbing or wrapping a runner with both hands or arms, then unweighting themselves by “swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg(s) at or below the knee.”
Back in March, the NFL Players Association released a statement ahead of the league outlawing the tackle by asking the NFL to reconsider its position.
“While the players have consistently advocated for health and safety advancements, any prohibition on the ‘hip-drop tackle’ technique is unfair to players and unrealistic to implement,” the union said in a statement. “It places defensive players in an impossible position by creating indecision in the mind of any tackling player, puts officials in an unreasonable situation that will result in inconsistent calls on the field, and confuses our fans.”
