NF: Pushing a teammate

[DJ_NV]

NF:
Normal scrimmage play/formation. At the snap, linebacker B1 pushes nose guard B2 into the snapper A1. The contact by B2 against A1 is legal (no personal foul, illegal blocking/clip, etc...)

Is the push by B1 legal?

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by DJ_NV

NF:
Normal scrimmage play/formation. At the snap, linebacker B1 pushes nose guard B2 into the snapper A1. The contact by B2 against A1 is legal (no personal foul, illegal blocking/clip, etc...)

Is the push by B1 legal?

CANADIAN RULING:

Legal.

[Warrenkicker]

9-2-3 A defensive player shall not:
b. Use his hands to add momentum to the charge of a teammate who is on the line of scrimmage.
Illegal use of hands or arms (Arts. 1a, 2, 3a, b, d) (S42)

So it sounds like it might not have been legal. It all depends on how B1 contacted B2.

[Blue37]

Originally Posted by DJ_NV

NF:
Normal scrimmage play/formation. At the snap, linebacker B1 pushes nose guard B2 into the snapper A1. The contact by B2 against A1 is legal (no personal foul, illegal blocking/clip, etc...)

Is the push by B1 legal?

Rule 9, Section 2, Article 3b: A defensive player shall not use his hands to add momentum to the charge of a teammate who is on the line of scrimmage.

Warren beat me.

[bigjohn]

I have been to many, many high school football games and playoff games and have never, EVER, seen this called!

[Jim D]

Originally Posted by bigjohn

I have been to many, many high school football games and playoff games and have never, EVER, seen this called!

The reason you've never seen it called is that I've never seen it happen. If I saw it, I'd call it.

[Warrenkicker]

The rule specifies that the hands must provide the added force. I would guess that most times if force is added it comes through shoulders or arms.

If I see them stack on defense just before a kick I will watch in that area for the pull-and-shoot. I have yet to ever see defensive players trying to push each other this way. I have seen the pull-and-shoot though it hasn't been successful when I saw it.

[bossman72]

This was legal in NCAA until this year. We used to run a field goal block called a "double push" where we lined up 2 d-linemen over the guard and 2 linebackers had their hands on their backside and would push the d-linemen.

[waltjp]

Originally Posted by Warrenkicker

The rule specifies that the hands must provide the added force. I would guess that most times if force is added it comes through shoulders or arms.

If I see them stack on defense just before a kick I will watch in that area for the pull-and-shoot. I have yet to ever see defensive players trying to push each other this way. I have seen the pull-and-shoot though it hasn't been successful when I saw it.

I've never seen the pull-and-shoot but I have seen a player line up behind one of his linemen and push him into the line. I flagged it. As you can expect, after we explained it to the coach his was irate and stated that he never heard of such a thing.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by bossman72

This was legal in NCAA until this year. We used to run a field goal block called a "double push" where we lined up 2 d-linemen over the guard and 2 linebackers had their hands on their backside and would push the d-linemen.

They could still do it legally as a wedge, pushing shoulders on butt cheeks.

Hey, it wasn't too long ago that NCAA specifically allowed pyramiding as long as it wasn't feet-on-shoulders.

Robert