Can offens grab facemask

[umpjim]

Originally Posted by MD Longhorn

I have seen the video. There's no grasping here, not once. "impetus for the defenders trajectory derived from the runners arm"????? That has nothing to do with anything at all. (And merely saying the term "horse collar" in the context of this play, where contact was entirely from the front, is particularly worrisome).

I'm a BB guy so I ignorantly used that term to refer to grabbing the front of the shoulder pads. So, without solid evidence of why the defender is going down no official will call it a facemask. Makes sense. Thanks.

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by umpjim

I'm a BB guy so I ignorantly used that term to refer to grabbing the front of the shoulder pads. So, without solid evidence of why the defender is going down no official will call it a facemask. Makes sense. Thanks.

Players grab each other all the time. Defenders go down all the time. It's football.

[Adam]

Ball carriers will often stiff-arm a defender on his face without grasping it.

[umpjim]

Originally Posted by Adam

Ball carriers will often stiff-arm a defender on his face without grasping it.

I'm sure thats what the first two pics show, a stiff arm, the other two pics show the defender seemingly being pulled to the ground by who knows what. If you don't know what you don't call nuttin.

[HLin NC]

So, without solid evidence of why the defender is going down no official will call it a facemask. Makes sense. Thanks.

Without solid evidence that a pitcher balked, the first baseman dropped the ball, the ball hit the batter, would you rule a balk, safe, award first base?

Of course the potential offender is Steve Smith so anything is possible

[Sturno]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7682UPN15us



Here's the video....and if none of the deep coverage officials threw anything on it, my guess is it wasn't the facemask he grabbed, maybe under his chin/neck and shoved off...?

From that angle...you have to have nothing....hence, my signature - "Assumption Is The Mother Of All Screw-ups....."

[umpjim]

Originally Posted by Sturno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7682UPN15us



Here's the video....and if none of the deep coverage officials threw anything on it, my guess is it wasn't the facemask he grabbed, maybe under his chin/neck and shoved off...?

From that angle...you have to have nothing....hence, my signature - "Assumption Is The Mother Of All Screw-ups....."

Interesting. In BB we strive to make decisions while stopped (not always successfully). In football the officials have to make decisions while moving. I guess that's why replay hit football before it hit baseball. Among other things.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by umpjim

Interesting. In BB we strive to make decisions while stopped (not always successfully). In football the officials have to make decisions while moving. I guess that's why replay hit football before it hit baseball. Among other things.

Baseball is one of the rare sports where you can do things while standing. Not the case in many other sports like football and basketball.

And in this video I see nothing that stands out as a foul. For one, we cannot see the actual contact with the stiff arm. Hard to make any concrete decision when the officials on the field saw this play life and from better angles.

Peace