[Scuba_ref]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Our first respoinsiblity are the rules of the game. If the rules of the game say to worry about safety, then we worry about safety.

I ran this play by my crew on Friday and usually I am on the outside when it comes to certain issues as to when to call certain things like this. Everyone on my crew agreed with me. One of my crew members gave an example of another situation where it happened to him. He told me of a scrimmage kick that was kicked badly and the K go the ball behind the LOS and then the recovering player ducked as if to act like he should be down. Well that kid got blown up as the ball was live and there was no reason to stop play. The point my crew member made, "It is there responsiblity to know the rules of the game, shame on them if they do not." Football is a violent game and if a player does something not to protect himself, that is not our issue. Because if we stop play, then someone complains we did something we were not supposed to under the rules.

I agree with this enforcement.


This is not about the letter of the law. This is about the rule states that the helmet must come completely off. That is not what happened here. And if you are worried about safety, why are we not flagging the kid for participating after the fact? After all the rule states as well that participating without a helmet completely on, is a foul now. Why is that part ignored if safety is your big concern?

The discussion has moved on to include other acts not the least of which was a compound fracture with profuse bleeding. In a worst case scenario (depending upon which blood vessel was ruptured) the body can pump out enough blood in a few seconds (I think 4 - 5 was the time frame mentioned in the thread above) to be life threatening. Yet you would still let the play run its course and then address the injury. No one in this discussion is advocating for shutting down plays for routine football issues. After all, players put their safety at risk on each play.

Heaven forbid that I should actually see a situation where a player's safety is so at risk that life or limb be threatened - but if I do I hope I have the courage to blow the play dead.

We should have two flags in this situation if for no other reason or IMO you are talking out your behind about how much safety you are concerned with.

Peace

Peace Out!