NFL banning hip drop tackle is a truly embarrassing look for the league

This week, the NFL voted to ban the hip drop tackle, which gained a ton of steam this season as the latest unpopular action by the NFL. Defense is getting harder and harder to play in the NFL. The hip drop tackle is yet another puzzling move by the NFL, as it is now banned the tackle in a unanimous decision.

And as you'd expect, players and other figures across the league are largely speaking out against this decision, which just adds another wrinkle into what defensive players have to keep n mind when stopping the opponents on offense.

The NFL apparently put together a video of what a hip drop tackle is, and folks, in my opinion, it's just a normal tackle:

And now, in a league where officiating and rules were already shaky at best, another very questionable play is now out of the league. The issue here is being able to objectively define the tackle. There are some very obvious plays that warrant flags. Things like holding and false starts are objectively clear when they happen. However, even those clear-cut mishaps don't always get flagged.

A hip drop tackle can be pretty subjective to look at. One tackle might look 100% clean, but if you ask someone else, they might argue that it falls under this hip drop tackle. And who knows how this tackle will even be officiated? The NFL has the rest of the offseason to try and define the tackle and to decide how they want to police it.

If you ask me, this is flat-out embarrassing for the league and yet another unpopular move that caters to the offense. I can just see it now; a team having their potentially game-winning drive in the fourth quarter extended because the referees apparently saw a hip drop tackle happen on a play.

We'll see how this this rule gets implemented into the game, but as of now, it feels like a huge mistake.