Crap Tactic: What Would You Do?

[ajmc]

Woah, there's all sorts of "doubt" in your conclusion. Let's not forget this is HS football game and every now and then HS football players don't execute plans exactly as they're supposed to, or were told to.

There are any number of legitimate reasons for "that block", if it were executed properly in compliance with the rules of the game. You have no idea, "what it was meant to do" and your entire premis is based on suposition and speculation. Just for a moment, consider how many kick returns are ended by the kicker making a score saving tackle. What gives you the credibility to decide that the only acceptable approach is to, "shadow the safety and make the appropriate block when the time comes"?

If blocking was something that could be done exactly as pre-planned, at only the appropriate instant, football would be a much different game. Especially on a free kick, blocking is more of something you hope enough of the players can do well enough to allow your returner to escape the defenders who successfully elude your blockers.

This particular play may have been all you suspect, but you have no way of knowing ANY of that and your decision as to penalizing the action should be based on specifically what you observe, not what you imagine might have been going through the player's mind.

If the contact was severe enough, and of the nature, to earn first a penalty and possibly a disqualification, that should be determined by what you observe, not what you suspect, or worse, imagine.