Perverse Incentives, Football Edition

Steeler players talk about how the new league rules regarding helmet to helmet contact actually encourage players to make more damaging tackles.

Several Steelers said that knees will be more at risk for ballcarriers because defenders will avoid going high on them.

"Guys are going to fear getting a big fine," said Woodley, "and they're going to start going for guys' knees, and that's going to be a serious problem once guys start getting their knees blown out and mess up the way they walk the rest of their lives.

Again, are there solutions to this? Perhaps you could say that a tackle has to be an actual tackle: that a player must be brought to the ground in the arms of another in order to end play. That might limit these massive collisions by limiting their effectiveness.