Unsportsmanlike on an Injured player
 

Last night we had a defensive player get his leg tangled up with two offensive players, they were about 5 yards behind where the ball became dead. As he goes down in pain, he takes his helmet off and forcefully throws it towards the pile of players coming off of the ball... We had an unsportmsnalike on him for throwing his helment... Coach said he understood, but as a crew we discussed whether or not we would have had a penalty if he would have taken his helmet off and tossed it to the side or away from other players... any thoughts?

If he's in agonizing pain I think you have to allow a bit of frustration if not directed towards others. Just my personal opinion- I've been there myself.

I had a similar situation in a different sport. During a baseball game had a player slide into second base on an attempted 2-base hit. The runner beat the ball and slide into the second baseman's feet pretty hard. It was a clean play but it was apparent that the second baseman got spiked. He hobbled away from the bag and then turned in anger and threw the ball over the fence.

"TIME! You (pointing to the runner), home."

The protestations were aplenty but I explained that we had a live ball that was thrown into dead ball territory. Two base award.

The point is, injured or not, players have the responsibility to know and act within the rules. I'd let a spontaneous profanity slide if not directed at anyone but I wouldn't allow a player to throw his helmet into a pile of players.

Good call.

The rules pertaining to USC don't include qualifiers that say anything to the effect of ", unless the player committing the unsportsmanlike act, in the judgment of the officials, was currently or recently in a lot of pain at the time of the incident."

What it the helmet hits a kid on the kneecap on the other team and takes him out of the game? And what if the referee, covering the play behind the ball, doesn't know that a player was hit by the helmet? IMO, much better off throwing the flag, as your crew did.

I also agree with the previous poster about letting a pain-driven profanity go in certain situations, but I'm not buying letting anything go that's safety or against the opponent-related in this or similar situations. You don't flag it, problems will result.

I've been in enough pain caused directly by an opponent that I've left the game, that was not called in my favor, in multiple sports, and kept it together, without retaliating against anyone.

Which is why I said, "if not directed towards others".