The 5 Yard Facemask Penalty

[Warrenkicker]

Originally posted by Rich Fronheiser
My pet peeve this season (we've talked about this after games, BTW) was that I had two illegal block in the back penalties reported to me by crew members where the foul was on the team not in possession at the time of the hit. Both fouls were legitimate penalties, I agree, but to me these are personal fouls, not "illegal blocks in the back" since there is nothing to block and it's just an ill-advised shot to the back, usually away from the play and usually dangerous.

--Rich

I had the same thing this year also. My U called a defensive lineman for a block in the back. I asked twice about who did what and then suggested to him that maybe we should call that a personal foul and he agreed.

[ref18]

In Canadian rules, we don't have a 5 yard facemask option, anytime the facemask is grabbed, it's a 15 yard Unnecessary Roughness call, no exceptions. If the defense grabs the facemask the offence is awarded an automatic 1st down.