The league and its players' union don't agree on much, so when they put out a joint statement, it's worth stopping for. On August 26, the NFL and NFLPA announced a rebuilt fines system for on-field health and safety violations, and the headline change is real teeth for players who keep doing the same thing wrong.
The NFL and NFLPA have agreed to overhaul the fines system for on-field acts by players that violate the league’s health and safety rules, emphasizing punishment for repeat offenders while relieving the financial burden on players for single infractions. Here are the details, sources informed of the agreement tell @ringer @netflixsports: 🏈 Five categories of fouls — hip-drop tackle, horse-collar tackle, launching, illegal blindside blocks and hits on defenseless players — will now trigger a suspension if a player commits three fouls in a single category. (One player would’ve met this threshold each of the past two seasons: Azeez Al-Shaair in 2024 and Frankie Luvu in 2025.) 🏈 Players who are fined for just one foul in one of those five “major” categories will get 50% of their fine money back if they don’t get fined again for that foul during the season. (If a player is fined again for a foul in a different category, he will not receive the refund for that second foul.) 🏈 Players who are fined for just one foul in any other player safety category — e.g. use of helmet, roughing the passer, leg whip, etc. — will get 100% of their fine money back if they don’t get fined again for that foul during the season. (If a player is fined again for a foul in a different category, he will not receive the refund for that second foul.) 🏈 Had this refund system been in place in past years, an average of roughly $1.7 million would’ve been returned to hundreds of players each season, with the vast majority of fines handed out to one-time offenders. 🏈 A player’s fine record will be adjusted at the end of each season, rather than needing to go 34 games (two full seasons) without an infraction to exit repeat offender status. For instance: If a player has one “point” towards a suspension at the end of the season, he will drop to zero entering the following season; if he has two points, he’ll drop to one. (One caveat: A player who has consecutive seasons with one violation will retain a point.) Players who are suspended for three “major” infractions will enter the following season with two points and another suspension looming; however, if they don’t have another violation the following season, they’ll drop to zero. 🏈 A player who is fined for a second offense in any category must meet with the NFL, along with his position coach and coordinator. He does not get any money back, but if he doesn’t have another fine that season, his two fouls will drop to one towards repeat offender status; if he isn’t fined the following season, it drops to zero. 🏈 Players still have the right to appeal any fines. 🏈 All players will start the 2026 season with a clean slate. 🏈 The changes were agreed to on a one-year trial basis, giving each side a full season to evaluate the impact of these changes on player behavior and discipline. But the intent is for this to be a permanent shift towards a new model.
Pelissero's reporting, citing sources briefed on the agreement, frames this as a trade-off. The old system leaned on fines for every single infraction, which players hated because the dollar amounts stacked up fast for hits that often aren't intentional. The new deal eases that burden on one-off violations but sharpens the penalty for guys who show up in the same column over and over. Three strikes in a season across any one of those 5 categories, and it's a game check gone, not just a fine.
NFL and NFLPA have announced that players who commit three violations in any of these categories in a season will be suspended one game. Here is the joint announcement:
Adam Schefter confirmed the same 5 categories in the league's own announcement: hip-drop tackles, horse-collar tackles, launching, hits on a defenseless player and blindside blocks. These are the exact hits that have been points of friction between the league's safety push and players who argue the rules are enforced inconsistently or too vaguely — the hip-drop tackle in particular has been fought over since it was first banned, with the NFL tweaking its definition as recently as last year to make it easier to flag.
A joint statement from the NFL and NFLPA adds that: “Clubs with excessive health and safety rules violations will also face increased financial penalties.” Also, Ron Rivera has been added to the pool of former players who oversee hearings for on-field discipline.
There's more to the joint statement than the suspension trigger. Pelissero also reported that clubs with excessive health and safety violations will now face increased financial penalties of their own, pushing accountability up to the organizational level and not just onto individual players. And in a smaller but notable line, Ron Rivera has been added to the pool of former players who oversee hearings for on-field discipline appeals. Rivera, who went 102-103-2 across stints as head coach of the Panthers and Commanders and won Coach of the Year twice with Carolina, joins a group of former players — hearing officers are jointly appointed and paid by the NFL and NFLPA specifically to keep the appeals process independent of both sides.
The threshold itself is going to be the thing everyone watches. Three violations across an entire season, spread across 5 categories, isn't a small bar for edge rushers, safeties and linebackers who make their living around the exact kind of high-speed collisions this policy targets. Expect debate all year about whether the rule cracks down on genuinely reckless players or just penalizes physical football that gets flagged under a broad definition.
What happens next is worth tracking closely as the season opens. The league says it'll be monitoring these 5 categories specifically for suspension risk, and with at least one player already reportedly at the threshold before Week 1 even kicks off, the first real test of this policy could come fast.