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Why did legalizing tackling below the waist lead to mass plays?

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Jalen Hurts, wearing number 1 for the Philadelphia Eagles, winds up to throw a football during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LVII against the Kansas City Chiefs. — American football Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts during Super Bowl LVII, 2023; the team lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.

The premise that legalizing tackling below the waist led to mass plays is accurate. In 1888, Walter Camp proposed legalizing tackles below the waist specifically to counter the advantage held by speedy backs who were frequently running around the ends of the defensive line.1

Rather than opening up the game, this rule change had the unintended consequence of encouraging the development of mass plays. Because defenders could now legally tackle low, offensive teams responded by concentrating their players into a dense formation to overwhelm a single point of the defense. This strategy, most famously exemplified by Harvard’s "flying wedge" in 1892, relied on sheer physical force and momentum. The resulting style of play was so brutal that it caused numerous injuries and deaths, leading to a national crisis that nearly resulted in the abolition of American football in the early 1900s.12