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Originally Posted by OverAndBack
All that said, and this is just Devil's Advocate here...do we think that what the quarterback did was intended to be unsportsmanlike? I know what the rule says. There's no argument about what the rule says. I'm asking could one see that what the intent of the rule was, its raison d'etre, was not necessarily to punish spontaneous joyous celebrations?
Yes, the ball went high. No question. Did anyone really get shown up?
JRut is right, though, we do tend to turn a blind eye to obvious infractions. Probably 99% of those don't happen on a last-play-of-regulation, almost-game-tying touchdown in a DI game, though.
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I've been wondering that as well since there are several situations that do violate the letter of the law but you use good judgement and ignore them either because they had no impact on the play or one team didn't gain an advantage over the other. One example from our game Friday night...there were several plays where the receivers were outside the numbers when the ready for play whistle was blown. They stayed out there until the snap which should have been an illegal formation. But our wing officials know the intent of that rule. They saw that the defenders were with the receivers and there was no intent to deceive. Would we have been technically right to flag them, yes. Does the rule book allow for judgement of this penalty, no. Does good judgement apply when you let this go, yes.
What none of us know though is what specific instruction the officials were given in regards to this rule. It sounds like the D-I guys were told specifically to flag these types of situations always so that made it a very easy call for him to make.