Jay Gruden hopes for more clarity regarding the new helmet rules

For months, coaches have been assured that the new helmet rules won’t be a big deal.
As the regular season approaches, more and more coaches are starting to realize that the new helmet rules will be a big deal.
“I’m waiting to get the rule myself written down,” Washington coach Jay Gruden said.
I know that we’re trying to protect the player, take the head out of the game, we understand that, but you do eventually have to make a tackle somehow and these guys are in some unique awkward positions from time to time, everything is not a perfectly formed tackle.
Even though coaches apparently have heard privately that the rules won’t be enforced as written, Thursday night’s Hall of Fame game featured the rules being enforced, you guessed it, as written.
When making a tackle, a defender won’t be running belly- or crotch-first into the player with the ball.
And the player with the ball will try to fend off the tackle, often by trying to get even lower.
Elsewhere, when players are competing for the same chunk of space with the ball in the air, a defensive player may inadvertently ram, butt, or spear an opponent with any portion of the helmet as their bodies collide.
Since the exception to this expansion of the unnecessary roughness rule encompasses only incidental helmet contact associated with a conventional blocking or tackling maneuver, any other maneuvers on the field that result in inadvertent ramming or butting or spearing with any portion of the helmet will become unnecessary roughness.
So, yes, this one is poised to become a mess, with every player attempting to lower his pad level relative to an opponent risking a penalty — and with the game potentially moving toward a blend of flag football and sumo wrestling.