o
Defensive players in the NFL have had to (try to) adapt to the NFL banning certain types of hits. I believe that the reason why this particular tackle is seen a lot now and was not seen nearly as much 40 or 50 years ago is
BECAUSE THE PLAYERS HAVE TRIED to avoid getting penalized for these now outlawed tackled (can't hit them too high, can't hit them too low, can't hit them in the head, can't hit them in the neck, can't "drive them to the ground", can't hit a defenseless receiver, etc) ...... so the defensive players have adapted this type of "wrapping up and throwing to the ground" tackling, which is a big part of this banned maneuver.
So the offensive player can keep his legs pumping all he wants to try to break a tackle, and that is called "second effort." ...... but now, the defensive player cannot wrap up a ball-carrier and throw him to the ground. He needs to just wrap him up, and hope that the referee blows the whistle for forward-motion before the ball-carrier breaks the hold of the defender and runs for more yardage.
Tackle football is an inherently violent game. You're not going to change that, no matter how much you penalize and/or emasculate the defensive players......what you will do (and what you HAVE done) is drive all of the offensive statistics through the roof (particularly the passing statistics) so that even the average quarterbacks of today have video game-like statistics that dwarf those of the great quarterbacks of the past.
NFL Owners Approve Ban on Swivel Hip-Drop Tackling Technique
(ESPN News Services)
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...ling-technique
o