Seahawks’ Pete Carroll Calls for NFL to Ban Type of Tackle That Injured Geno Smith

The hip-drop technique has caused controversy in variants of football around the world.

The Seahawks hammered the Giants 24–3 on Monday Night Football Monday evening, but needed two quarterbacks to do it.

Seattle was forced to turn to backup Drew Lock temporarily after starter Geno Smith was injured, with the latter being forced from the game by New York linebacker Isaiah Simmons. Simmons knocked Smith out with a hip-drop tackle, a type of tackle in which a defender grabs an offensive player and twists the player’s legs beneath his body weight. 

The tackle has caused particularly significant controversy in Australia’s National Rugby League, which has exchanged ideas about combatting the practice with the NFL. On Tuesday, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll spoke out against the tackle on KIRO-AM in Seattle.

“I don’t even care about the (lack of a) penalty,” Carroll said. “We’ve just got to get that out of ball. It’s so dangerous.”

Smith, for his part, was incensed about the play postgame.

“I just don’t respect that type of stuff. There’s no need for that type of stuff,” Smith said. “It’s a hard-fought game out there. We’re all battling, but there’s no need to take shots at guys running out of bounds on the sideline.”

The NFL’s competition committee considered banning the tackle this past offseason, but the idea—met with vocal opposition from the players’ association—was eventually shelved.