Just saw a clip of the tackle that injured Shazier, and I can't help but notice that it looks like he makes contact with the bengal player with the TOP of his head. It makes me cringe because you would think that on the professional level players would have been coached for many years NEVER to hit with the top of your head.
First, whenever you hit with your neck in that position there is a distinct possibility that your will injure your neck or spine. If you hit with the top of your head, you won't necessarily hurt yourself every time, but you will eventually, and sooner rather than later. Second it's illegal and a 15 yd penalty. But when was the last time you saw a spearing call.
This is what we coached almost 40 years ago when athlete were smaller and slower. It pains me to see that some still aren't getting the message. When you hit with the front of the helmet or facemask, your neck is in its STRONGEST position to protect against neck and spine injuries and the forehead is the strongest bone we have in our bodies.
We can eliminate most of the kinds on neck injuries like the one Shazier had simply with better coaching. Even back inn the stone age when I coached, if I saw a player hit with his head down or with the top of a helmet, he would be pulled from the game as sat down for at least the rest of that series. If it happened at practices laps were involved. You'd be surprised how quickly most of this types of hits would be eliminated, and this is on the HS level. They could do it even faster when its dollars and not just laps that its costing you on the professional level.
Ironically good tackling is not soft tackling. In fact when your head and neck are in the proper position, you can hit even harder. If the NFL wants to make the game safer, they should heavily fine players (for their own protection) who hit with their the top of their heads. They should also fine players who just throw their bodies at the legs of players leading with their heads down. Not only does it lead to bad tackling, it again, puts the head it a horrible position and subject to injury.
They simply need to coach the sport better. (rant over)