National Football League
Pereira: NFL may change its attitude about helmets
National Football League

Pereira: NFL may change its attitude about helmets

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 2:13 p.m. ET

Here's something to wrap your noggin around.

It will be interesting to see what the NFL's future plans will be regarding when a player loses his helmet. And I was given a head's up about that on a play took place during the Indianapolis-Jacksonville game Sunday.

Here was the situation: Jacksonville had the ball, fourth-and-18 at its own 13-yard line with 10:03 left in the first quarter. Indianapolis led 7-0. Bryan Anger punted the ball 46 yards to the Indianapolis 41-yard line and it was returned five yards by Griff Whalen, who was tackled by LaRoy Reynolds, who had lost his helmet while pursuing the play.

Will the NFL follow the college and high school rule that states that once you lose your helmet for whatever reason, whether it's pulled off or whether it comes off accidentally, you can not pursue the play?

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Reynolds had his helmet come off and then he pursued the play and made the tackle. Interestingly, he turned his head to the side while making the tackle.

However, it is a player safety rule that the NCAA adopted just recently and I think it's safe to say the NFL will look at it as well during the offseason. In some ways, the NFL has already followed the NCAA rules in terms of a helmet coming off a runner, for example.

I wouldn't be surprised if the NFL headed that way.

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