MIAMI — The three-day spring NFL owners’ meetings ended this week just outside Orlando and among the most notable decisions made, the league stole Christmas Day like the Grinch and made tackling harder for defenders.

On a brighter note, the NFL voted to resurrect the forgotten kickoff return, albeit with a new rule that is so complicated and will look so bizarre on the field it must have been invented by Rube Goldberg. (Google it, kids.)

Quick thoughts on the rule changes and some Miami Dolphins-centric stuff:

— The league previously said it would not play on Christmas Day in 2024 because it falls on a Wednesday — but reversed field by announcing there would be two games played on the holiday.

Money talked; no shouted. The three Christmas games this past Dec. 25 (a Monday) did huge ratings, with the Ravens-49ers game garnering the best Monday Night Football rating since 1996. Cha-ching!

Fans like watching football no matter the day of week or holiday, possibly because they have bet heavily on the outcomes. Not me. Can’t we just spend the once-hallowed day at home with family and take a break from sports, for Christ’s sake!?

(Aside to my editor: I plan to have a severe, sudden-onset head cold about nine months from now.)

— The NFL eliminated the hip-drop tackle. Who knew there was a hip-drop tackle?

League describes the defensive play in question as involving a swivel technique in which a defender grabs a runner with both hands or arms “and unweights himself by swiveling and dropping his hips and/or lower body and trapping the runner’s leg(s) at or below the knee.”

In the name of safety or possibly to blatantly aid offenses and make games higher scoring, the NFL previously required that quarterback sacks be done gently and including a note of apology. Now another defensive staple has been criminalized.

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