roughing the kicker

[jfurdell]

Yeah, I'm afraid the referee's not allowed to block for the kicker. (Not on purpose, at least.)

Can't comment on this play without seeing it, but in my game on Saturday, we had the kicker fall down twice after kicking. Once, he tripped over his own feet. The second time, a defender who had come running in to try to block the kick fell down on the ground behind the kicker. The kicker then backed up and tripped over the prone defender, falling down backwards and flailing around wildly.

The important thing to remember about your situation is: We won't call roughing the kicker, or any penalty for that matter, unless we're sure we've seen it. If the referee in your game said he didn't think the kicker got hit, he shouldn't have thrown the flag, nor did he.

Things look different down on the field; sometimes we see things better than you can in the stands, sometimes worse. But we can't be throwing flags for fouls we think might have happened. We have to know they happened.

If we miss one here and there... sorry. That's just the way it is.