Horse-collar tackle
 

Rule: 9-4-3

k. Grab the inside back or side collar of the shoulder pads or jersey of the runner and subsequently pull (backward or sideward) that opponent to the ground (Horse-collar), even if possession is lost. The horse-collar foul is enforced as a live-ball foul

I have been asking a few officials about this call and its pretty much black and white against what the book says.

The officials say they will never call a jersey horse collar. I know in sports there are rules that the referees hate so much its never called. Like face guarding in basketball.

As a new official I don't know if this is one of those or they do not see where it might be called.

Here is my guess.

If a player is dragged down slowly from behind by the jersey this is legal.

If a player is whipped backwards by the jersey this is a horse collar tackle.

By unmentioned referee rule book it has to be super bad to ever call this kind of horse tackle penalty?


Thanks in advance,

We called one Friday night. Inside the jersey, pulled srraight down.

Do you mean from behind from the bottom of the jersey reached up inside and grabbed it.

The key is that the tackler has to actually grab the collar. Whether that is just the jersey or the jersey and shoulder pads is immaterial. The reason is the amount of leverage they can generate to yank a player down and buckle his knees. Protecting the player's knees is why this is illegal. It's harder to get as much leverage to pull the player down if they don't have a grasp on the collar itself, which is why a pull down by grabbing the back of the jersey but not the collar, is not a foul.

And this isn't even in the same league as face guarding in basketball. This is a safety foul and should be called every time.

This is still judgment involved as another player can also make this not a foul. I try to be sure about this one even if everyone tries to suggest a foul as taken place.

Peace

I am surprised they haven't extended the foul to the nameplate. I've seen some nasty knee buckling, but with the hand not inside it's simply not a foul.

I agree though they may consider the collar an easy way to delineate what is legal or not. We had one like that this Friday actually.

Making a pull down by the collar or back of the jersey in a section defined as between and above the numbers or something similar would be an interesting change.

k. Grab the inside back or side collar of the shoulder pads or jersey of the runner and subsequently pull (backward or sideward) that opponent to the ground (Horse-collar), even if possession is lost. The horse-collar foul is enforced as a live-ball foul

Why not say this..

Grab the inside back or side collar of the shoulder pads of the runner and subsequently pull..

why did they add or jersey...

This doesnt make sense to me.

Because if you grab the inside of the collar of the jersey yet not the shoulder pad, in other words the player's hand is inside the jersey material and between it and the shoulder pad, it is still a foul.

It is a space saving measure instead of saying "Grab the inside back or side collar of the shoulder pads OR Grab the inside back or side collar of the jersey".

Because you can get the same action/effect by either grabbing the collar of the shoulder pads OR grabbing the collar of the jersey.

Take a look at these two videos

Grabbing the collar of the shoulder pads:
Shoulder pads
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKJklhQHnJA" frameborder="0" ></iframe>

Grabbing the collar of the jersey only:
Jersey only
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.nfl.com/videos/new-england-patriots/0ap2000000128208/Gostkowski-horse-collar-penalty" frameborder="0"></iframe>


Note: one of these is college, and one is NFL, but the basics of the rule are the same for FED, NCAA, and NFL.

These are both fouls... if "grabbing the inside of the jersey" wasn't mentioned in the rule, the second one wouldn't be a foul.

Had one called in a JV game the other day by a new official. Trouble was the runner went forward. We waved it off and explained it to the A coach. He was not happy but finally accepted our explanation.

I appreciate everyones help. I was focus on the jersey when clearly its meant for jersey around the collar.

Good luck in your season and thanks again forum members.