The NFL made a significant rule change in the name of player safety on Tuesday, but that wasn’t good news to one prominent player.
The league announced that owners had voted to outlaw blindside blocks, citing a statistic stating that one-third of all concussions on punts were caused by that action.
To expand protection of the player being blocked, @NFL owners voted to eliminate blindside blocks. One-third of all concussions on punts were caused by blindside blocks. With the rule change, any forcible contact by the blocker with his head, shoulder or forearm is prohibited. pic.twitter.com/abA2cENnXe
— NFL Football Operations (@NFLFootballOps) March 26, 2019
New York Jets safety Jalen Adams, however, decried the rule change as “soft as hell.”
Soft as hell. Let’s Bring out the flags! https://t.co/AvgSiwE4zr
— Jamal Adams (@TheAdamsEra) March 26, 2019
In the past, Adams has been pretty flippant about the long-term damage football can cause, and ultimately, he’s probably not alone. In that sense, his take on this isn’t a huge surprise.
