roughing the kicker

[dtaughin]

Situation: Punter receives ball on a perfect snap. He punts the ball immediately. He is hit by someone on the receiving team while his kicking leg is still in the air. Punter is injured and down. No flag. What should the official have done?

He told the coaches he didn't think the punter got hit. What did he me he didn't think he got hit. Isn't that just his one and only job at the time, to watch the punter? How hard is that? Then he said. Don't worry about it you recovered the fumble on the punt. Why would recovering the fumble negate a penalty against the receiving team?

Isn't there a rule that protects the kicker? Isn't there a penalty to insure that?

[TXMike]

Assuming you are sticking around for an answer...I will answer. But there were plenty of great answers on the McGriff's board where you also complained. There are few rules that can prevent an injury, even from an unfair act. All the rules can do is punish after the fact. But even then, if a player is seriously injured by a foul, how does a 15 yard penalty make up for that? You are complaining to the wrong folks.

[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.

[dtaughin]

I wish you could have seen it too. It sound like you, jfurdell, were doing your job at your game. The punter did not slip and fall in our game.

[Ed Hickland]

Originally posted by dtaughin
Situation: Punter receives ball on a perfect snap. He punts the ball immediately. He is hit by someone on the receiving team while his kicking leg is still in the air. Punter is injured and down. No flag. What should the official have done?

He told the coaches he didn't think the punter got hit. What did he me he didn't think he got hit. Isn't that just his one and only job at the time, to watch the punter? How hard is that? Then he said. Don't worry about it you recovered the fumble on the punt. Why would recovering the fumble negate a penalty against the receiving team?

No one here can offer a comment on the play you mentioned because we were not there. And, even if we were, we cannot offer the same perspective as the game referee. I don't know if the referee for your game does film review but that is one of the best methods for evaluating your performance. No, it will not cause the call on the field to be changed because the review occurs after the game.

As a referee for the last six seasons I can tell you a lot happens that the fans don't see. If, and I only say if because I was not there, the referee had a poor position it is possible to miss contact especially if there is a lot of blocking around the kicker.

Another possibility, is the contact with the kicker's leg occurred before the kicker had actually kicked the ball. If the kicker was in the process attempting the kick and before the ball is physically kicked, he is not protected by rule.

I hope we have answered your inquiry because it appears you posted only as a gripe and not to gain some level of knowledge.

Isn't there a rule that protects the kicker? Isn't there a penalty to insure that?

There is a rule that protects the kicker after he kicks the ball and until he is no longer vulnerable. That rule depends upon when the player who kicks the ball, actually makes contact with the ball.

[Edited by Ed Hickland on Sep 30th, 2003 at 09:13 AM]

[JRutledge]

As I have stated I am a member of the Central Officials Association in the Chicago area. We have NFL, D1 (Big Ten and MAC officials) and many State Final officials on our roster. Every single week we see an enormous amount of film on all kind of plays. There is not a single presentation that does not have film of NCAA games that happen during the past year. We have guys that spend hours bringing in tape on plays that happen dealing with specific areas of a presentation. For example if we have a presentation on the "Kicking Game," we have several plays that deal with Roughing the kicker or PSK. We see crazy plays that might involve all kinds of rules. So when you get on the field, you have seen a Roughing the Kicker play probably 10 times in about that many games and we talk about the positioning and what the rule is. What is interesting is that we do not always agree with what was called in the game, but we are not shown the plays to always come to one conclusion. Especially when we are dealing with a judgment situation, we might have discussion on why that was a good call or why it was a bad one. But it prepares you big time for when you get on the field. Because you can come up with some kind of conclusion in your mind what you will do if you see something similar. It also helps you realize that even the "big boys" make mistakes. And in football you see a lot of silly mistakes from D1 and even NFL officials. Hell, we could not even agree what the call was during the NC Game on the big DPI call.

If this official had done half of what we do in our association, he might have been very clear what the play was. I think TXMike made the best point, whether something was called or not, is not going to keep the player from being injured. Our calling something is only going to penalize the action if needed be. But there might not be a single thing to penalize.

I had a coach last year get a Unsportsmanlike Penalty because he got mad at me (kid got hurt) because his player decided to jump over a blocker and the blocker hit him while in the air. Well he hit the kid below the waist, but that is not a foul when you have an airborne player. The kid got nicked up and the coach went ballistic. But the only penalty was called was on the coach for his reaction. So if your defense is the fact that, "the punter got hurt," that is not going to fly.

Peace

[James Neil]

Come on Mom, let it go. Most of us here have already read the nastier rendition of Jr.'s bashing posted at the other board .The answers you’ll receive here will be no different. One thing I did want to mention is that even though Jr. told you at home he wasn’t faking being “roughed” (and he well might have been) sometimes the kids will embellish their injures on hits they take. In a game I was working the other day I had a player drug down right in front of me. I was right on top of the play (maybe too close) and saw the action in its entirety. As the downed runner rolled over to hand me the ball we made direct eye contact. He’s not grimacing, huffing or puffing, crying, moaning or any such thing. I move to the hash and am standing over the ball when I here the Ref toot his whistle to kill the clock for an injury time out. Two trainers and a coach rush in to attend to the injured player. The ref goes over to take a look and comes over to me and says the kid says he was speared. I ask “you mean the runner?” . He says “yah” and we both crack up.