Facemask on offense philosophy
 

I had a high school game last week where I had an inadvertent facemask (5 yards) on an A blocker. After the game, I got reamed up one side and down the other for the call.

I can understand the philosophy of not calling an inadvertant facemask on the runner, but the idea that an A blocker/lineman should be allowed to put their hands on an opponent's facemask and, "oops," grab it does not sit well with me.

Is there a prevailing philosophy on calling facemask fouls on the offense that I have not heard of? Should I just bite the bullet and call all facemask fouls on the offense a "personal foul facemask" to make this particular white hat happy? Or should I call "illegal use of hands," like he suggested?

Jmo
 

A lot of people think that these calls should not be made on the defense or seem to be surprised when they happen.

Not sure there is a philsophy honestly other then most do not look at these fouls on offensive players. I have even called a couple of facemasks on a runner when they clearly grabbed the facemask only to get grief. I think officials either do not look for this or they do not have the heart to make a call even if the foul is mildly obvious to their eyes. And it does not help many of these are not going to easily show up on tape either.

Peace

Coincidentally, last night a running back for the Steelers got called for it. And it was a good call, not just a stiff arm but a grasp and pull of the defenders' face mask. Al and Chris even agreed with the call!

It happens. I one time saw it several times in a season when it was a facemasking was a POE and mentioned in that POE was the runner doing this to defenders. All obvious as I remember them and I got crap for calling them. So it does happen. Never said it didn't, but you get crap for it when you call it.

Peace

Pete Morelli was thrilled when the foul was reported. I don't know if I've ever seen someone roll their eyes so hard on national television.

When the runner throws somebody down by the facemask, it's a good call. I don't care what your philosophy is. But I was criticized for calling it on a blocker. What's the deal with that? I can't wrap my head around why it was a bad call.

It happens. Pulling and twisting an opponent's facemask is dangerous regardless of offense or defense.

However, on the rare occasion when a crewmate has called this, I conveniently "forget" the facemask part of my PF signal.

I'd say illegal use of hands. If the hand touched the face itself, it'd be at least illegal use of hands, wouldn't it? So why should the bars across the front of his face "save" the blocker from an illegal use of hands call? Shouldn't the headgear count as part of the head?

Of course if it was an actual grab, then personal foul.

Or by a coach looking to get a player's att'n in practice, or even as a handle to lead him by. I hate when they do that.

I saw this, too, and thought it was pretty rude and unprofessional of him to do that to another crew member.:mad:

He kinda looks like that all the time, though....a serious case of sleepyface.

I called this twice in a game last year, once on each team. I've always wondered why coaches, players etc... think the offense should get a break on this when it is a PF.

Never see hands above the shoulders called on OL or DL players.

BktBallRef: who said anything about a lineman? The flag was on a blocker downfield.

You haven't watched my crew work -- we've had 3 of those fouls in 5 weeks, 2 in varsity games. If the hands come off right away, fine...

Final update
 

A bit of an update on this. Apparently, my association really prefers the NCAA/NFL rule on face mask calls.

As was explained to me by our most experienced, and gruff, official, "we" don't call face mask on the offense unless it's worth 15 yards. Otherwise it should be illegal use of hands for 10 yards. The theory is that there is no reason, whatsoever, for a player's hands to be around anybody's face or helmet. On teh defensive side of the ball, the same applies, unless it's a tackler, in which case you may be able to call the 5-yarder.

You'd think, after 11 years of officiating football, that a philosophy like this would have been stated or written down somewhere or explained to me some time in the past. *shrug* Oh well. When I stop learning, I'll stop getting better.

It's the product of a Fed rule on illegal use of hands that overlaps in most cases with the incidental face mask situations. Conceivably if the blocker's palms are toward the blocker, and initial contact is made below the neck, the hand could slide up to the mask without its being illegal use of hands, but how often is that going to happen? If you have a single act that's 2 fouls, then the non-offending side should get the benefit of the greater penalty.

This is one place where the college rule is actually more severe than the HS rule -- hands to the face in the NCAA book is actually a 15-yard penalty. We had one on Saturday. I know the NFHS considers it an illegal blocking technique, hence the 10.

If the HTF is really aggressive and doesn't come off the face at all, our HS crew has agreed that we'll bump that up to a PF for UNR. So far this year, we've had 3 HTF and we went 10 for all three of them.

And I agree and disagree with the association. In theory, it's impossible to get a 5 yard facemask considering the HTF rule (with the exception being if the runner is involved). And yet...if hands end up on the face and come right off, we usually don't flag that at all (unless they don't come off or unless they strike the opponent in the face). So there probably is some wiggle room.

I think the best solution is to eliminate the 5-yard facemask like at the other levels of the game. Many of those 5-yard FM fouls should be 15-yard fouls and the rest shouldn't be fouls at all.

1. The NFL rule is both more and less severe: 10 yards for foul by offense; 5 yards, auto 1st down for foul by defense. :confused:

2. I like the philosophy of being open to upgrading HTF to a PF. It often deserves more than a mere blocking foul. Similar in that respect to an IBB: away from the back, player gets hit in the back, we're generally going PF for UNR.

3. I also like the philosophy of avoiding most 5-yard FM fouls. Most often it's either a safety issue (PF) or it's nothing.