Crap Tactic: What Would You Do?

[OverAndBack]

Look, I think we can all figure out that this was more than just a (wink-wink, nudge-nudge) "block." There's pretty much no question in my mind (at least, as someone a thousand miles away) what the intent of the whole deal was.

But I'm not sure we can flag or eject people for malicious intent, can we? Unless they actually do something that's not within the rules? We judge intent on intentional grounding, right, in some instances? They took intent out of the spearing rule a couple of years back. I'm not sure they want us reading minds, even if a reasonable official for whom this is not his first rodeo can figure out that R is headhunting.

The hit was hard - no question. If that exact same hit (same force, same delivery, same point of impact) happens ten yards farther downfield, is it a foul? Kids get blown up all the time on kickoffs and punts.

Now, you've got a foul for contacting the kicker before he goes 5 yards or sets himself to be able to participate in the play. No question. That's 15. It's possible (it's real close) that R encroached on the play (looks like he hits the 50 about simultaneously with the kick, but only the LJ would know for sure). Those are both fouls.

But the hit itself? Well, you'd have to be there. You'd have to be experienced, you'd have to, in your judgment, believe it was a flagrant hit.

Now, if I'm K's coach, I do one of two things: I tell my kicker to run up to the ball on the next kickoff and stop a yard short and see if R encroaches and keep doing it until they stop sending that guy on the fly trying to get to the kicker as quickly as possible. OR I put my biggest lineman on the kickoff team right next to the kicker and say "That guy is YOUR responsibility" and have HIM blow R up. We'd see how long that tactic lasted.

A third possibility is to keep my Stanford-bound QB in the game and throwing in the 4th quarter if I had a big lead. His team won the game, 26-13 as it was.