NFL players to be removed from game for not adhering to new padding requirements
Players will now have to suit up in full thigh and knee pads like Adrian Peterson. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
The NFL has already cracked down on the uniform policy, fining players $5,000 who wear the wrong color of socks or shoes on the field.
Starting this season, the league is mandating that every player wears thigh and knee pads.
But if players don't comply they just won't be fined the following week, they will be removed from the game.
"If we have a player that somehow wants to buck the system, so to speak, and slips through the cracks, and he is on the field," NFL vice president of football operations Merton Hanks said to USA Today. "At that point, we will notify the sideline team designee, (and) we will notify the back judge of the officials group to give this young man an opportunity to make the adjustment. And if he refuses, he will be removed from the game."
The NFL did mandate thigh and knee pads from 1979 to 1994.
Ed Reed
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