I suspect you cannot, but what is the penalty?
mmm
My understanding is that, at least in the NFL, it’s not illegal in and of itself.
This started to come up 10 to 15 years ago, when more players started having braids and other long hair styles that extended well past their helmets.
It’s illegal to grab and pull someone down by their facemask, or by the back of their uniform/pads (the “horsecollar tackle”), but those rules specifically don’t include hair.
Hair is in play, players who wear long hair do so at their own peril.
Have any of you ever seen a player yanked down by his hair?
I have not.
mmm
“You see a player on the other team with long hair hanging out his helmet you grab it when you tackle him.” – Coach Kimbrough my 7th grade football coach.
I think it’s considered bad form, but I’ve heard announces state it’s legal.
Many times.
It is considered part of the uniform and is called the “Ricky Williams rule”.
In 2003, after the former Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams was pulled down by his dreadlocks in a game, the N.F.L. ruled that hair was part of a player’s uniform and therefore legal to grab in pursuit of a tackle.
You may notice the wearing of hair long enough to tackle by is much more common among defensive players.
Yes, you can, though it would likely trigger an altercation. I’ve seen it done several times.
The hair is part of the uniform, therefore is fair game. I always thought it was reckless of players to keep their hair long that way. It’s also part of the player’s body, so perfectly fair just as much as tackling someone by their toes, wrist, fingers, etc.
Fun fact, the referees/officials are considered fair game as well (part of the field), in the sense that if you hit a ref but it was incidental to the play (not intentional, like if you run over a ref who was immediately in your way en route to the end zone or tackling someone).
Thank you. I knew the league came out and explicitly clarified this a couple decades ago but I was wracking my brain trying to remember who the player was that made it a central issue.
Lots of flags in those clips. Maybe these were before the rules were clarified?
mmm
Mostly they were bad calls by the refs. The flags on nearly all those plays were for horse collar tackles, which admitedly looks similar. But the slow-mo replays show that they were hair, and that they should haven’t been flagged. On review, some of them were reversed.
I think all of those clips were after 2003 when the Ricky Williams rule clarified that it was legal. The oldest one was 2006.
I’m waiting for teams to start putting player’s names below the numbers instead of above, so you can still see long-haired players’ names. I’ve seen it in women’s sports but never in men’s.
You mean the hair on their head, right?
Repeatedly. I watched Marshawn Lynch as a Seahawk for years and they’d tackle Beast Mode anyway they could, including by his hair.
Here’s one case where they ripped out a dred, no penalty or controversy.
It really doesn’t make sense that horse collar tackles are illegal and hair tackles aren’t. Both will result in the player being pulled down downward and potentially folding a leg underneath.
I think that the reason why hair tackles are legal is just because it’s the player’s own choice to have hair longer than their helmet. If you don’t want to be tackled by your hair, it’s really easy to prevent that.
Alternatively, it would also give an unfair advantage to people who choose to grow long hair. If you can be penalized by grabbing a guy’s hair as you’re trying to tackle them, then you need to be extra careful when someone has long hair so that you don’t grab it by accident. That would be ridiculous. Every receiver, tight end, and running back would grow their hair out as much as possible to create a kind of “cloak of invincibility”.