"Unnecessary Block" Flag
 

Let me preface this with the fact that I didn't hear this comment. I was only told this comment was made to a coach.

Play: Long run to the EZ. 20 or so yards behind the play there are some peelback blocks that are made when the runner is inside the 10. Flag is thrown. Supposedly the coach was told that it was due to the block being "unnecessary."

Would this fall under "unsportsmanlike?"

Under NCAA rules it would be a personal foul, not unsportsmanlike.

Agree with Jason. Same thing in Fed. This is a personal foul for unnecessary roughness for blocking a player clearly out of the play.

Unsportsmanlike fouls are non-contact fouls. Personal fouls involve illegal contact.

Canadian Ruling
 

CANADIAN RULING:

Players 20 and more yards behind the play when the ball is inside the 10 on an impending TD are 99% of the time out of the play. In these cases, hitting them as described is unnecessary. It's a UR foul, enforced 15 yards from PBH (where the ball was when the foul happened and assuming yards were gained) and no score. (If yards were not yet gained, enforce the 15 yards from PLS.)

This is the Canadian division of acts as well. We call them Unnecessary Roughness and Objectionable Conduct. UR are OC are not limited to these actions, though.

If the hit is clean and the defender saw it coming, most of the time, it's a "talk to" Could be a flag though. It depends on how the game is going.

Fed rule 9.4.3b:
No player or nonplayer shall:
Charge into or throw an opponent to the ground after he is obviously out
of the play, or after the ball is clearly dead either in or out of bounds.

Hitting a player obviously out of the play has no provision “if he saw the block coming”, If we don't get this is will lead to retaliation later in the game.

I think the very fact that the hit came on a player that was out of the play, the hit is by definition NOT clean. Flag it. If not, you're asking for fights.

To the OP: Coach was told the hit was unnecessary, as in Unnecessary Roughness. Unsportsmanlike is a different animal, and treated differently.