Incidental contact ?

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

There's a difference between being tripped, and tripping. (foul, no foul)

An obvious difference is that "being tripped" happens to the "trippee," and "tripping" is generally called on the "tripper." But that's not what BillyMac means.

The point is that players can trip over their own feet, which is obviously not a foul. They can also trip over defenders who have not moved or are otherwise not responsible for the contact, and that tripping is also not a foul.

Only when a player is responsible for the contact in such a way that the result is another player tripping do we have a foul (and possibly not even then).