Is It Legal To Pull Hair In The NFL?

You see a ton of players in the NFL these days with long hair.  Is it legal for other players to pull their hair?

It's not uncommon at all to see long hair flowing out the back of a helmet in the NFL.  However, it comes with a price.

Last night, a lot of people saw James Cook run for two touchdowns on the night.  One of them was a 41 yard scamper that he took to the house but he didn't go untouched.  He nearly got yanked down by his long dreadlocks.

He commented after the game that the guy that tried to tackle him by his hair came up to him after the game to apologize and say that he let them go right away.

The crazy thing is that he didn't have to.  As you may have heard Tony Romo say, it is completely legal to grab hair and even to tackle someone with it.

Some people call it "The Ricky Rule" after former Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams was pulled down by his dreadlocks in a game in 2003 and the NFL made it legal "in pursuit of a tackle."

That being said, it's not always legal to just yank on someone's hair.  If you're trying to tackle someone, yes.  But because it's considered part of someone's uniform it would be like pulling on a jersey.  So, if someone was running after another player to tackle them, you can't just yank their hair to keep them away.  That could be considered "holding" and could end up in a penalty.  You can also get a personal foul penalty if you continue to pull the hair after the play is over.

I know that it feels like the game is stacked against the defense.  They have to tackle players absolutely perfectly to avoid getting a flag.  But it seems a little backwards that you can't tackle someone by grabbing their shoulder pads from the neck area in order to keep them safe.  That's called a "Horse collar tackle."  You can't grab the facemask to avoid neck injuries.  That's a flag for "Facemask."

But you can grab their hair.  Does that seem wrong to anyone else?