Several NFL Players Are Not Happy With Proposed Helmet Rule Change

San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman and other NFL players spoke out Tuesday after the NFL passed a new rule penalizing players who lower their helmet and make contact, according to USA Today.

“It’s ridiculous. Like telling a driver if you touch the lane lines, you’re getting a ticket. (It’s) gonna lead to more lower-extremity injuries,” Sherman said of the rule.

Richard Sherman #25 of the Seattle Seahawks looks on late in the game against the New England Patriots during Super Bowl XLIX at University of Phoenix Stadium on February 1, 2015 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

The new rule says a player may even be “disqualified” from the game depending on the severity of the hit, according to NFL.com.

“Playing Rule Article 8: It is a foul if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent. The player may be disqualified. Applies to any player anywhere on the field. The player may be disqualified,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy tweeted.

Playing Rule Article 8: It is a foul if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent. The player may be disqualified. Applies to any player anywhere on the field. The player may be disqualified.

— Brian McCarthy (@NFLprguy) March 27, 2018

“I don’t know how you’re going to play the game,” Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman said. “If your helmet comes in contact? How are you going to avoid that if you’re in the trenches and hit a running back, facemask to facemask and accidentally graze the helmet? It’s obviously going to happen. So, I don’t know even what that definition looks like.”

“It’s not going to do anything. I don’t know any other way to play,” he added. “I understand trying to be safer, I get it. We saw what happened to (Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker) Ryan Shazier, and I get it and understand that, but at the same time, it’s football. I don’t know what other way to say it but it’s football. … I pray for the game and hope it’ll still be what it is, but it seems in our day and age, the game as we know it is coming to an end.”

“It continues to put us in a predicament,” Buffalo Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander explained. “In our mind, it makes it hard to play defense in this league. In my mind, there needs to be more of a common-sense approach to it. … It is football at the end of the day. There are going to be injuries that you can’t avoid. You can’t legislate everything out.”

The exact wording of the rule will not be finalized until the owners’ spring league meeting takes place in May.