Points of emphasis?

[DinwiddieProud]

In your various association meetings this year, with respect to football, what will be the major points of emphasis?

What will be discussed as the difficult and/or confusing applications of the rules from last year?

 

[White hat]

The Points of Emphasis came out a couple weeks ago. I was just reading them.

The overall theme of the document is Risk Minimization. There will always be risk, but they don't want unnecessary risk, therefore they want to eliminate excessive conduct.

The four bullet points addressed:
-Excessive contact
-free blocking zone
-Sideline interference
-Illegal equipment

The long piece about excessive conduct can be distilled down to two questions when judging whether conduct is excessive: Does the player who is hit have a chance at making a play? Did the player who hits an opponent launch himself, hit the head or neck region, lead with helmet contact, or take action to add a level of violence to the hit that is not necessary? If any of these answers is yes, it needs to be called.

I've mentioned before that the biggest threat to football is liability insurance actuaries. Officials aren't excited about throwing flags or calling kids for making big hits, but if something doesn't change, no school will be able to afford the cost of insurance that will be required just to play the game.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

That's about what I expected to see for this year, for the reason you stated. I agree and support this approach. But, it sure doesn't make your job any easier. It's sure not going to be a crowd favorite when a kid makes what looks like a great block or tackle only to get flagged.

But it must be this way. Primarily for the health and safety of the kids. And as you say, to save the game.

What kind of illegal equipment is the concern? That sounds a little strange. Unless you are simply looking at the big picture. Legal, certified, refurbished helmets, etc.?

Sideline interference as a point of emphasis indicates to me there must have been problems last season?

DP

 

[White hat]

The Points of Emphasis came out a couple weeks ago. I was just reading them.

The overall theme of the document is Risk Minimization. There will always be risk, but they don't want unnecessary risk, therefore they want to eliminate excessive conduct.

The four bullet points addressed:
-Excessive contact
-free blocking zone
-Sideline interference
-Illegal equipment

The long piece about excessive conduct can be distilled down to two questions when judging whether conduct is excessive: Does the player who is hit have a chance at making a play? Did the player who hits an opponent launch himself, hit the head or neck region, lead with helmet contact, or take action to add a level of violence to the hit that is not necessary? If any of these answers is yes, it needs to be called.

I've mentioned before that the biggest threat to football is liability insurance actuaries. Officials aren't excited about throwing flags or calling kids for making big hits, but if something doesn't change, no school will be able to afford the cost of insurance that will be required just to play the game.

That's about what I expected to see for this year, for the reason you stated. I agree and support this approach. But, it sure doesn't make your job any easier. It's sure not going to be a crowd favorite when a kid makes what looks like a great block or tackle only to get flagged.

But it must be this way. Primarily for the health and safety of the kids. And as you say, to save the game.

What kind of illegal equipment is the concern? That sounds a little strange. Unless you are simply looking at the big picture. Legal, certified, refurbished helmets, etc.?

Sideline interference as a point of emphasis indicates to me there must have been problems last season?

DP

The illegal equipment and the sideline interference contain no new info. I guess they are on here because NCAA now prohibits the "overbuilt facemask," which have up to 5 horizontal bars and five vertical bars, sometimes at a slant. The NCAA says they do not offer any more protection, they increase the risk that a finger could be caught and broken, and their purpose is only for visual effect, not football effect.

NFHS has not adopted that rule, but not many high schools go out and spend $$$ on these type of facemasks anyway, so it's not a real problem.

Sideline interference needs to be emphasized because it was the cause of two high-profile enforcement mistakes last year. It's also the result of a huge lawsuit from a few years ago, so it will always be mentioned.

The Free blocking zone is a strange entity, but the biggest point of emphasis concerning it is that, in a shotgun snap. it disappears so fast that only the initial block happening "immediately" after the snap can be below the waist, and only by a lineman on a lineman. Anyone off the line cannot block low or be blocked low.

As for the excessive contact rule, the only way it will be called on a tackle is if the play is stopped or about to be stopped, and the tackler then takes action that is more an intent to injure than play football. A receiver who has just caught a ball who is hit (blown up, is the current parlance) should be penalized. Blocks away from the ball that are against a player who is not in position to make the play and not aware of the blocker should be flagged. Two guys well away from the ball who are blocking each other shouldn't have a problem. It's the play where the ball is well down field and the guys behind it are just moving along, when one decides he's going to cheap shot an opponent who's not looking.