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CFL director of officiating Tom Higgins confirms hair tackles are legal—but should they be?

andrew bucholtz

The Montreal Alouettes' win over the Toronto Argonauts Sunday was notable for more than just the injury to Toronto quarterback Ricky Ray, as it also demonstrated an unusual element of the CFL's rules. Montreal receiver/returner Trent Guy was twice dragged down by his dreadlocks, and plenty watching were surprised by TSN's commentators saying such a play was legal. According to CFL director of officiating Tom Higgins, though, there's absolutely nothing wrong with pulling a player down by his hair. Here's part of what Higgins told Dan Ralph of The Canadian Press:

"It's part of the uniform," Higgins said. "It's like tackling a guy by the arm.
"It's a part of him so you're allowed to use it to make a tackle.''

Of course, the CFL isn't the only league to take this stance. The NFL's approach is similar, and that's led to players being dragged down by their hair, such as this tackle the Cincinnati Bengals' Adam Jones performed on the Baltimore Ravens' Torrey Smith last November:

As Higgins told Ralph, it seems unlikely the rule will be changed any time soon, either.

Higgins, for one, doesn't expect the CFL's board of governors to rush this off-season to discuss changing its rules to ban such a practice.

"No, because it actually has been discussed for many, many years coming," he said.

While grabbing a player's hair is legal, doing so intentionally isn't regarded as an accepted practice in football. But Higgins said because the pro game is so fast, players are often left grasping for whatever they can get their hands on in order to slow down and/or stop an opponent.

"That's why you do see facemask penalties and horse-collar penalties because it happens so fast," he said. "A tackle is meant to be hit with your shoulders where you wrap up but that's not always the case.

"So you reach and go with one hand and grab whatever is available."

That's a terrible excuse, though, and this policy of "grab whatever is available" merely reinforces the all-too-common tackling issues that pervade this league. It's lazy tackling, and it's a safety issue: players everywhere lead with their head or try to yank players down by any means necessary, resulting in a lot of preventable injuries and dangerous hits. Hair-pulling is more dangerous than it may seem initially, too, especially on the concussion front. Many concussions are caused by rotational acceleration, not straight-on hits, and a player's head's very likely to be sharply whipped around when they're hauled down by their hair. With player safety and the long-term effects of concussions in particular being a critical issue for this league, more should be done to change the CFL's rules and insisting on proper tackling technique instead of hair-pulling could be a crucial element of reform. It's not just about the CFL, either; minor, junior and university players all watch this league and then go out and emulate what they see. If what they see is a continuous stream of poor tackling and bringing players down by any means necessary, do you really think they'll pay attention during tackling drills?

Moreover, Higgins' comments on players' long hair in general seem insensitive at best. Here's what he had to say on that:

"There's not one football player who would go on to the football field with a ill-fitted jersey," Higgins said. "Why guys have it (long hair) that are going to carry the football, I don't know.
"Yes, it's a style and personal preference but I think it hurts the team when you give somebody an additional advantage."

This is only an "additional advantage" because of an antiquated rule that penalizes those who have long hair. Pulling someone down by the hair simply shouldn't be an acceptable part of football, and changing a rule to deal with that seems far less offensive than mandating all players have short hair. CFL players are individuals, not rubber-stamped components rolling out of a factory somewhere, and there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to have long hair. Sensible leagues like the NHL (yes, those words are rarely typed these days) realize this: if you pull someone's hair in hockey, you can be thrown out of the game.

Of course, that doesn't mean that the CFL should change its rules so that any contact with a player's hair is a penalty. If someone's hair goes a long way down their back, you're going to come into contact with it even on a proper form tackle. The issue isn't touching a player's hair, though, but rather using it to haul them down; that's what's putting tremendous forces on their head, and that's what's likely to cause injuries. It's an unacceptable safety risk, and the answer isn't having players cut their hair to comply with a silly, discriminatory rule. This isn't the world of "Signs," where long-haired freaky people need not apply. The CFL's rules and football rules in general are not carved in stone; they're alterable when needed, and the league's already changed several rules to enhance player safety. They should follow suit here.

It's worth noting that things worked out rather well for Guy Sunday, though. His Alouettes won the game 31-10 and he had two touchdowns, including one on a nine-yard pass and this 129-yard missed field goal return:

If not for a ridiculous rule that twice allowed tacklers to bring Guy down by his hair, his day would have been even better. Some, like Higgins, may see that and conclude that Guy needs to cut his dreadlocks to comply with the CFL's archaic rules. The view from this corner is that it's the league, not the player, who needs to adapt.