New Rules for 2015

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

The revised rule now reads, “No player or non-player shall make any contact with an opponent, including a defenseless player, which is deemed unnecessary or excessive and which incites roughness.”

Bob Colgate, director of sports and sports medicine at the NFHS and editor of the NFHS football rules, noted that an example would be when a defensive player who is not in the vicinity of the ball is “blindsided” by a blocker on the offensive team.

How is that a change? Hasn't that been illegal, with the same penalty, for a long, long time? All this diddling about "defenseless" players adds nothing to an understanding of long standing.

A new Rule 6-1-4 was added to state that the timing of the foul for not having at least four players on each side of the kicker now occurs when the ball is kicked.

Whew! I was afraid for a while they were too enamored of their cleverness in devising a different rule from NCAA's to change that. You'd think someone would catch on, though, to the opp'ty to eliminate the inequity if a team is short a player, by specifying a maximum of 6 on either side rather than a minimum of 4.