New trend??
 

This year, my crew has made this call in three different games. Linebackers
are cutting pulling lineman below their knees. The linebackers were in the free blocking zone, but clearly not on the line of scrimmage when the ball was snapped. In all three instances the coaches were insisting that the linebackers could do this because they were in the free blocking zone when doing the block below the waist.

Anyone else seeing this? It appears to me that some coaches are teaching their linebackers to do this.

Are the linemen currently being blocked by another player besides the linebackers?

If so I would think this would be a chop block and could be flagged as such. This appears to be a saftey issue and I would not allow it to continue.

Nope... just the linebacker, and they were flagged for a block below the waist...
it's still a safety issue.

rule 2-17-2... Blocking below the waist is permitted in the free-blocking zone when the following conditions are met:
a. All players involved in the blocking are on the line of scrimmage and in the zone at the snap.
b. The contact is in the zone.

Since the linebacker was in the zone at the snap, but not on the line of scrimmage.... it is an illegal block below the waist.... Rule 9-3-2.

Your crew nailed that call spot on.

Thanks.... but my real question is whether there is an increase in this type
of activity.... or whether the three games we had was just an aberration?

Good call. Safety always needs to come first.

I have not seen that type of activity yet this season, but I will now keep a look for it. Was there any commonalities? Same school, conference, etc. Might be something the coaches are trying to get away with.

REPLY: I haven't seen it yet either. But I'll be looking for it.

Three different schools... three different conferences. In all three cases the
coach insisted that their linebacker could take out the pulling lineman in such a manner because they started in the free blocking zone... ignoring the part about starting on the line.

Maybe all three just misunderstood the "free blocking zone".... just seemed strange to me that all three thought about it in the same manner. Only the first coach admitted that he had instructed his linebackers to take out the blocking in that manner. I didn't ask... he just told me so.

REPLY: They may not have misunderstood the free blocking zone. But they probably didn't realize that to execute a legal block below the waist, the blockers (and blockees) must be in the free blocking zone and on the line of scrimmage at the snap.

Our association has been told to look for that the last two years, as coaches around here have been training their LBs to do that against option offenses, and the offensive coaches have been getting a bit upset by this.

REPLY: Where I've seen something like this is on kickoffs where the kickers go low on the wedge to take them out of the play.

We have the exact opposite problem - we, as coaches, are complaining about this to the officials who won't flag it because they say it IS in the FBZ...had a 2-3 minute conversation with the WH and U before 2nd half kick-off and they flat out refused to flag it the 2nd half. The other thing we are seeing is d-linemen firing out low and wrapping up the legs of our linemen to keep them from pulling - in essence tackling an offensive player other than the ball carrier. Any of you guys want to move to Washington and help us out???

REPLY: Do you pay relocation??:D

We had the cornerback come up twice and cut the full back leading on the sweep, we caught it both times and the coach of the offending time still thinks it is leagal. "My defender is just trying to get to the ball carrier," by cutting the fullback!

What about the reverse of this? Would a guard be able to cut a blitzing linebacker who wasn't on the LOS at the time of the snap but was a couple yards back?