When Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan knocked out Packers receiver Davante Adams with a vicious (and illegal) helmet-to-helmet hit on Thursday, some argued that Trevathan should have been the first player to be sent to the showers under the league’s new rule mandating automatic ejections for egregious hits to the head.
Trevathan wasn’t the first player ejected under the new rule, because there is no new rule.
Contrary to a March 2017 report from NFL Media that the “rule on automatic ejections for egregious hits to the head was approved,” an NFL spokesman has informed PFT that the rule was not approved or otherwise adopted. This explains, as we noted earlier in the day, the absence of any reference to an automatic ejection rule from egregious hits in the 2017 NFL rule book.
This probably makes a suspension for Trevathan less likely. The incident, however, could make an automatic ejection rule inevitable.
If that ever happens, the NFL also should rely not on the officials to spot the ejectable hit in real time but on 345 Park Avenue and/or the on-site replay official to make a decision based on the available visual evidence.