Part II: Defender drops on hands and knees...

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the physical position of the defender on his hands and knees. That is not what any official should penalize.
The problem here is the tactic of purposely adopting that position with the intent to put his opponent in a dangerous situation. Simply put the idea of the defender is to do something unfair and unsafe. That cannot be allowed and must be penalized.

I would not penalize based upon the physical contact which may or may not take place in this specific case. I would penalize based upon the mental process undertaken by the defender. His conciously chose to do something not within the spirit of fair play. That meets the definition of an unsporting foul. Thus the penalty that I select is an unsporting technical foul and it occurs as soon as the defender adopts this position, but I may withhold the whistle to allow the opponent to finish his scoring play and then enforce the penalty. So again any physical contact is not the central issue.

I know that the criticism of this method of handling the situation is going to be that an official cannot read the mind of a player or that one doesn't know if the defender is injured. In answer to that I say that it can quickly be determined whether the player is hurt or not, and while an official can never know exactly what a player or coach is thinking reasonable determinations of such can be made from their actions. Afterall, that is why we get paid the big bucks!

Well, I agree with Bob.

I think I can live with the unsporting T, as it is not too much different than the "barking dog" play. And, if that's the case, I wouldn't need to wait to see if anyone gets injured, or if there's any contact at all.