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The reason it's called "grabbing the face mask" is that historically, doing just that was made illegal decades earlier. It wasn't until the 1970s that NCAA and later Fed realized the mask wasn't the only handle by which someone's head could be grasped. That occurred shortly after wearing a 4-pt. chin strap attachment became mandatory. Before that, grabbing the side or top openings of the helmet might've simply resulted in the helmet's coming off without the head wearing it being jerked in any direction.
Robert
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