No Longer a Potential Blocker

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

So you are saying that a receiver is running a drag route across the middle and a LB can come and jump block into the receiver with his shoulder and knock them down and all is OK because they did not use their hands but used their shoulder?

Man, where are you guys getting these interpretations from? :rolleyes

Where's the rule saying they can't?

This rule was traditionally understood as a limitation on use of the hands & arms, not a limitation on body blocking. This goes back to a time when the defense was allowed much more use of the hands than the offense, but that use of the hands was limited to warding off body blocks. The rules makers wanted to make clear that the privilege allowing use of the hands did not extend to cases where there was no block being warded off.

Where was the language inserted to make this apply to blocking or contact per se rather than use of the hands? If Fed didn't want the rule still to be understood as a limitation on use of the hands and arms alone, why is it still in 9-2, rather than part of 9-3? They've got this whole section right there concerning when you can't block, but no, this is in the section about when or how you can't use hands or arms.