Crap Tactic: What Would You Do?
 

The video:

YouTube - Taysom gets rocked

The story:

High School Football Coach Suspended After His Players Cheap Shot Opposing Kicker - FanHouse Back Porch

NBC Newschannel 6 Where News Comes First - Pocatello Head Coach Reinstated To Coaching Duties

As I look at the video, I see a clear and easy flag:

Rule 9-3-4: "The kicker or place-kick holder of a free kick may not be blocked before:
a. he has advanced 5 yards beyond his free-kick line; or
b. The kick has touched the ground or any other player."

15 yard penalty.

Looks to me like he gets cleaned at the 43 1/2. Am I seeing that correctly?

Flag for illegal block. It also looks flagarant to me and would probably DQ.

Not only have I called this, I look for this all the time as a BJ. I am not sure about the flagrant part; I would have to see the block up close. But no doubt this should be a personal foul. An illegal block is not as harsh.

Peace

In a five-man situation, Rut, you've got the kicker as he goes downfield, right? That's how it was put to me in a preseason scrimmage. (We don't have back judges below varsity level here, so I haven't worked it since, but I remember that.)

You have the kicker until he goes down field 5 yards or if he gets his balance or can affectively participate in the play.

Usually the receiving team drops off and this is not an issue. I would think based on what I have seen previously, that I would have noticed the player with a "brick" and got this foul. At least I hope I would.

Peace

It appears that the kicker had just gotten set after the kick, and then got lit up by the defender who did not stop at all from the initial run. I would definately flag it and toss him. That kind of cheap shot could paralyze somebody or worse.

Bresquire

Where is the line judge on this call? Our mechanics have the line judge on R's restraining line on a kickoff. It appears that R was clearly encroaching before the ball was kicked and the LJ should have thrown his flag, blown his whistle and killed the play before R got a chance to block/attack the kicker. Encroachment on R, 5 yard penalty.

Can we stop with the hyperbole ever time we see an illegal play? :rolleyes:

If that would have paralyzed the kid, then so would any pass thrown over the middle where players are literally trying to take the head off of the receiver. If you do not want to get hurt, stop playing football.

Peace

But if I stop with the hyperbole, I'm scared I could get somebody paralyzed.

Or worse.

As for the original play, as the umpire I am following the kicker down in our five man mechanics. (I don't know others.) I specifically watch for this type action. However, in our four man mechanics on sub-varsity games, I am on the side line and have not been specifically looking for it in the past. I will in the future. Thanks for posting the play as a reminder.

It looks like their lineup is LJ and U on opposite ends of K's line and L on R's line. (We have almost the same but U with kicker.)

You know, I didn't even look for that, but you're right! It's VERY close. For that player to get in that quickly, he's got to get extremely lucky or encroach and it appears to me that he may have crossed the restraining line before the kick. It's bang-bang. Yeah, the LJ has the 50 and should get that.

The coach's explanation that "we do it like that all the time" (a) is bollocks (because nobody worries about taking out the kicker) and ( b) probably wouldn't stand up to a review of game tapes that other schools have from playing them (like most "last week's crew didn't call that at all!" things).

I've seen the video a few times and I can't tell if the R player encroached or not. Either way, you'd think that the LJ who is positioned on R's restraining line would notice a player blasting over the line like a rocket while the rest of his team is stationary or moving away from their line. I would hope that my LJ would have his curiosity aroused enough to watch what was going to happen.

The BJ and LJ responsibilities are:

1) encroachment
2) on-side kick (ball in air, on ground, 10-yards, etc.)
3) blocking

Once they see the ball in the air they should check the status of the kicker.

So are you saying you would not penalize this as a flagrant foul, JRut?

Flagrant foul for what, a hard hit? Do you call flagrant fouls for other personal fouls not specifically subscribed by the rules?

Unless I saw something like leading with the head or some other addition to this contact, calling this a flagrant foul all by itself is a stretch. And you cannot see anything I just suggested on this tape.

Amen. This was just a hard hit- not a flagrant hit.

If you watch the play from the AOL Fanhouse site, you can pause the play just as the ball is kicked. The defender is clearly a yard into the neutral zone when the ball is kicked. Looks like the crew just wasn't prepared for it.