Sports
An already costly play from Monday evening’s game in Tampa was even more costly Friday.
Upon review, the NFL definite Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith performed a hip-drop address on Buccaneers receiver Chris Godwin in Baltimore’s score and has fined the linebacker over $16,000, NFL Community Insider Ian Rapoport reported.
A hip-drop address is officially defined as when a participant grabs a runner with each and every fingers or wraps the runner with each and every hands after which unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower physique, landing on and trapping the runner’s leg(s) at or under the knee.
The address resulted in a season-ending ankle dislocation for Godwin, who underwent surgical blueprint on the injured ankle this week. It also drew criticism of Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles, who had kept Godwin on the discipline within the last minute of a game his team used to be unlikely to score.
On the muse explore on the tv broadcast, it did no longer seem as even though Smith performed a hip-drop address. Nonetheless, All-22 photographs shot from the terminate zone shows Smith contacting Godwin with his better physique and wrapping each and every hands round him. At the moment after making contact, Smith’s legs swing forward and his physique lands on Godwin’s left leg, inflicting the ankle wound.
Smith used to be no longer flagged for the address for the duration of the sport.
Outcomes like Monday evening’s are precisely why the league banned the hip-drop address for the duration of the Annual League Assembly in March. It is no longer the main famous hip-drop address ensuing in wound — Texans running inspire Joe Mixon used to be taken down by Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards via a hip-drop address in Week 2, inflicting a high-ankle sprain that impress Mixon three games — nonetheless it with out a doubt has produced the most principal wound to a vital person participant this season. Irrespective of the league’s efforts, it be clear the address acquired’t fade from football straight away, as Smith was the 10th participant to be fined for the address this season.
The wound ended a season that can like been Godwin’s easiest of his profession. By seven weeks, he’d racked up a league-main 50 receptions for 576 yards and 5 touchdowns, serving as the precise complement to Buccaneers vital person Mike Evans in an explosive offense.
Evans also exited Monday evening’s game with a hamstring wound, making for a nightmarish evening for the Buccaneers.