Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
When did tackling by the head become illegal? I am not saying the tackle is safe, but again what rule was violated? The only rule I can imagine is unnecessary roughness, but that suggests the runner is vulnerable and defenseless and that he was not. Again, the runner kind of spun in a way that allowed himself to get slammed. I could even make a case the runner helped cause the ability to be slammed. I would need more direction to just call a foul. We need to as officials stop trying to penalize every hard hit. This was not targeting. He did not hit him in the head. The runner was trying to get away and the defender did not have him under control and then slam him. The kid's safety is certainly a priority, but there must be a rule violated. A hard tackle or hard hit is not in itself a rules violation. That is why I am a little perplexed by what we are you want us to penalize?
Peace
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I agree with you, generally speaking, but my question really came as a result of thinking about the facemask foul in general. Although many tackles during a football game involve full body-to-body contact, some involve players grabbing onto any part of the opponent that’s accessible, including jerseys, shoes and pant legs, which is permitted by the rules of the game. However, making a tackle while touching any part of an opponent’s face mask is illegal and, when called, results in a penalty against the offending player and team. While I have never a tackle like the one shown --despite the insistence of the occasion coaches screaming-- it did make me ponder the rule. If for example, the defender's arm came between the top of the face mask and bottom of the face opening (across the eyes) would this be considered an inadvertent contact with the face mask? AGAIN the question was posed simply for
discussion.
Not second-guessing anyone since the question was posted as purely hypothetical.