Quote:
Originally Posted by Suudy
I hadn't commented on it yet, but that is the impression I got from watching the video. I do not think his contact was malicious. I do think it was intentional. But there is a difference between intentionally contacting an official in a benign manner (shaking hands, helping up, pat on the shoulder, etc) and in a malicious manner (shoving, running into, etc). The discussion on here and elsewhere was judging which category this particular contact falls. The officials on the field didn't appear to find it malicious. Insofar as the discussion is focused on that, I don't have a problem. But those discussing the motivations of the officials is problematic.
My original comment about "Intentionally contacting an official is either always a foul or it isn't" should be edited. Perhaps "Maliciously contacting an official is either always a foul or it isn't." Malicious acts are always intentional, and not all intentional acts are malicious. Now, I don't know how the NCAA rule is phrased.
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It's phrased in a way that malice doesn't enter into, just whether it was forceful & intentional.
I'm trying to look at it in a way the official directly affected, or other officials looking on, would not have been said to ignore the letter of the law. Perhaps it could be said that since it's in a section labeled "unsportsmanlike acts", a particular action by a player that fit the specifics of an article within it could simply be ruled not to have been "unsportsmanlike". In other words, by reading into each provision affecting actions in that section a qualifier, "in a manner which is unsportsmanlike", because that's how the section is headed.
Similarly, helping an official off the ground by pulling him would be forceful & intentional, but not unsportsmanlike...I hope. ("Hey, you dissing me by saying I need help to get off the ground? You're outta here!")
I could think of other situations where there'd be a similar conflict between the wording of this provision and its probable purpose. Just any live ball and an official is in your way as a player. You could go around him, but say that tactically it's to your advantage to try to run him over. You didn't go out of your way to make contact, but you could've avoided it. Or say you're a non-player subject to the rules, and an official has been knocked off the sideline by such a contact, and you hit him to deflect him from hitting some hard object near the field.