Quote:
Originally Posted by ajmc
AS ALWAYS, it depends on what you actually see. NFHS: 2-3-5-b "A defensive player MAY ALSO push, pull or ward off an opponent in an actual attempt to get at the runner OR A LOOSE BALL if such contact is not pass interference, a personal foul or illegal use of the hands.
HOWEVER, NFHS: 9-4-g prohibits, "Make ANY OTHER CONTACT WITH AN OPPONENT, including a defenseless player which is deemed unnecessary or excessive and which incites roughness.".
So it really boils down to YOUR judgment as to the specific situation YOU are looking at.
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The original situation was stated as, "A defender, in an effort to get to the ball or restrict an offensive player from getting to the ball, grabs the offensive player by the back of the shirt and pulls him down. (No horsecollar tackle)"
"An effort to get at the ball" and "restrict an offensive player from getting to the ball" are treated differently in the provisions on legal use of the hands and arms, so the official has to infer which it is. But pulling an opposing player down by the back of the shirt is hard to imagine as anything other than restricting that player's movement as the purpose of that contact. Who thinks pulling down on someone else's collar is going to enhance your ability to get to the ball? That's why I "see" it from the description as illegal use of hands.
It
might be a personal foul, in that similar contact against a ballcarrier is illegal, but the conditions there were determined to be unreasonably dangerous to the knees, given the forward momentum the ballcarrier would have, a situation that does not necessarily obtain here. This one's a "have to see it" judgment as to whether it's UR. And I'll allow as it might be an unfair act penalizable by the "God rule", but again that's a "have to see it", like as if the fouled player were clearly going to gain possession of the ball save that foul, but there are similar situations of contesting a loose ball that are rarely penalized by the discretionary penalty, so it's unlikely here.