Horse collar

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by secondregionbug

Is it illegal in high school football and if it is what is the foul and penalty?

CANADIAN RULING:

There is no specific restriction on the acts that the NFL calls a horse collar. However, like any play in our game, if an act is judged to be rough and unnecessary, the officials can rule the act as Unnecessary Roughness. UR is 15y + AFD. Spots of enforcement vary depending on the situation. If it's ultra-severe, the UR foul is upgraded to Rough Play, which carries the same spots of enforcement and AFD, but is 25y and DQ.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by JugglingReferee

CANADIAN RULING:

There is no specific restriction on the acts that the NFL calls a horse collar.

There used to be one, violation of which was called "scragging".

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

There used to be one, violation of which was called "scragging".

You have to tell me more! I like the history of the game just like you do!

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by JugglingReferee

You have to tell me more! I like the history of the game just like you do!

It dates from before there were helmets, but it lasted considerably into the helmet era, just don't ask me for dates. Among the items listed as RP was "scragging", which was not defined in the rule book, it was just common rugby terminology at one time. Eventually that wording in the UR & RP provisions was replaced with, approximately, "tackling about the head or neck in an unnecessarily rough manner" around the same time as "tackling out of bounds in an unnecessarily rough manner" came in. Previously the rule had theoretically forbidden either practice entirely, as is the case now again for tackling out of bounds.

Until about a quarter century ago, Canadian football was known as a rougher form of the game -- slow whistles, liberal interpret'n of the UR & RP provisions. RP wasn't an automatic DQ, only a warning or discretionary DQ for 1st violation.

Robert