New "No Blind Blocking" Rule

[HIHusker]

NCAAF doing their best impersonation of the federal government....*golf clap*

[Moiraine]

I just don't see how defenseless player didn't already cover this without it being ridiculous. They can apply defenseless player whenever they think the hit is unsafe. Some of these types of blocks are not that hard, and defensive players shouldn't be learning that they can just run around blind.

[Moiraine]

Just had another one called during the Colorado CSU game. But 5 minutes earlier a WR caught a ball and he was nailed by the CB, which was far more dangerous than most of these hits. So maybe we should tell the CB they can't hit the WR until they take 2 steps? *sigh*

 

 

Edit: The stupid thing about this one is it was a little feather touch, he basically missed the guy, and it was much closer to an illegal block in the back. And part of the rule is apparently that there has to be forceful contact.

 

The real rule should be that you can't launch for a blindside block. That would get rid of some of these stupid calls where the player's safety wasn't in question.

[brophog]

I don’t anticipate this rule making it past this year. It may be redone, but it won’t exist in this form. Just impossible to officiate.

[Moiraine]

5 minutes ago, brophog said:

I don’t anticipate this rule making it past this year. It may be redone, but it won’t exist in this form. Just impossible to officiate.

 

 

That's what I'm thinking/hoping. They've gotta differentiate between the hits that aren't hurting players and the one like Kenny Bell's hit that spins the player around and they're on the ground for 10 minutes.

[Landlord]

3 hours ago, Moiraine said:

I just don't see how defenseless player didn't already cover this without it being ridiculous. 

 

 

How often do you see a targeting call on an offensive player? The B1G head of officiating smirked at me when I asked him if targeting should be called on runningbacks who lower their head, as an example.

[BigRedBuster]

 

[MichiganDad3]

6 hours ago, Moiraine said:

I just don't see how defenseless player didn't already cover this without it being ridiculous. They can apply defenseless player whenever they think the hit is unsafe. Some of these types of blocks are not that hard, and defensive players shouldn't be learning that they can just run around blind.

Or blocking in the back. Which side of a player is blind - the back, so we have a rule for no blocking in the back. How can a ref judge if a player sees the defender? Only by watching the results. If I was a defensive coach, I would tell my players to focus on the ball carrier, and ignore the blockers. That way if they block you, you were blind.

[HuskerPowerVA]

I remember when they outlawed hitting a defenseless receiver.  That was just football we said.  A WR in the air and the ball ten yards above his head...the safety was always taught to make sure he didn't get up for daring to go over the middle.  

I remember when they started to enforce launching head first over the pile in the name of a block right after the whistle when a play was clearly over, but the objective was to take the top of the pile.  That was football and meant to slow down the pursuit and gang tackling. In reality, it was to injure and we knew it.  And we did it.  

I remember when driving the QB into the ground with your weight plus momentum, not to mention with your helmet in his ear hole, was not only allowed, but expected.  

I admit that I still don't understand targeting at times.

But here is the thing, and there is no getting around it.  After playing football for a long time I know guys who are still not the same after playing with me in college where all this was part of the game.  I know somethings at age 50 can be fuzzy and they say 50 is the new 40...not for some.  None of us went on to make a living in the game and the bravado that was fulfilling does not heal the brain from countless times it hit the skull.  It you played in HS and you say a 170 pound kid with marginal ability rocked your world during a play, but thats the game and you need to shake it off, you don't understand the big picture any more than I didn't when I did all the above tactics.  The science is scary and yes, the game will never be the same.  Get used to it.  

[Moiraine]

7 hours ago, Landlord said:

 

 

How often do you see a targeting call on an offensive player? The B1G head of officiating smirked at me when I asked him if targeting should be called on runningbacks who lower their head, as an example.

 

 

I’ve asked that before too. But rules don’t need to be changed in writing or new ones implemented in order to change how things are called. They can simply retrain officials and announce they are going to be calling that more. I saw one in a game last night where the RB smashed his helmet into the defender’s face and I thought it should be called.

 

That said defenseless player is different than targeting and I have seen defenseless player called on the offense. But again, they can increase how often it’s called. Any time this blind block occurs and the player is launching himself could have been called using defenseless player. Instead they created a penalty where 90% of the time it’s called so far, the “victim” wasn’t in danger.

[Moiraine]

1 hour ago, HuskerPowerVA said:

I remember when they outlawed hitting a defenseless receiver.  That was just football we said.  A WR in the air and the ball ten yards above his head...the safety was always taught to make sure he didn't get up for daring to go over the middle.  

I remember when they started to enforce launching head first over the pile in the name of a block right after the whistle when a play was clearly over, but the objective was to take the top of the pile.  That was football and meant to slow down the pursuit and gang tackling. In reality, it was to injure and we knew it.  And we did it.  

I remember when driving the QB into the ground with your weight plus momentum, not to mention with your helmet in his ear hole, was not only allowed, but expected.  

I admit that I still don't understand targeting at times.

But here is the thing, and there is no getting around it.  After playing football for a long time I know guys who are still not the same after playing with me in college where all this was part of the game.  I know somethings at age 50 can be fuzzy and they say 50 is the new 40...not for some.  None of us went on to make a living in the game and the bravado that was fulfilling does not heal the brain from countless times it hit the skull.  It you played in HS and you say a 170 pound kid with marginal ability rocked your world during a play, but thats the game and you need to shake it off, you don't understand the big picture any more than I didn't when I did all the above tactics.  The science is scary and yes, the game will never be the same.  Get used to it.  

 

 

 

There are sometimes dumb posts saying football is football and it’s being p***ified, but for the most part people understand and want it to be made safer.

 

But that isn’t really relevant in this topic because every single call I’ve seen on this was a hit where the players weren’t running close to full speed, their heads didn’t land first when they fell on the ground, and the hits were far less dangerous than many others yo see throughout every game.

 

They can make Kenny Bell’s block illegal without going to this stupid level of calling it when a player is hardly even nicked. Bell was running about full speed and jumped into the player. They can call it when they do that.

[HuskerPowerVA]

Every single call you have seen does not amount to much data.  Sounds like another person who never played the game.  Blind blocks are often at full speed and are very dangerous as you are hit without any time or notion to prepare.   They are some of the most jarring and violent and I have seen them cause whiplash.  When I played TE, I rather get hit while in the air defenseless while jumping for a ball then blindside blocked while running at full speed to pursue a runner after an interception.  

 

That said, sure, any rule can be administered poorly with bad judgement or over restrictive language.  A play without any meaning contact or when a player is trying to withhold from hitting the player should be considered by the ref.   

[knapplc]

So... Bootle wasn't a "blind block" guy on that TD?

[brophog]

41 minutes ago, knapplc said:

So... Bootle wasn't a "blind block" guy on that TD?

 

Should have been called.

[Moiraine]

3 hours ago, HuskerPowerVA said:

Every single call you have seen does not amount to much data.  Sounds like another person who never played the game.  Blind blocks are often at full speed and are very dangerous as you are hit without any time or notion to prepare.   They are some of the most jarring and violent and I have seen them cause whiplash.

 

None of this matters, because I'm perfectly fine with them using rules that gets the plays you're referring to called, and I think it's possible to separate them. You're ignoring the fact I just said it would be fine to make the Kenny Bell hit a penalty. That's exactly the type of play you're talking about. They can call them on players who launch into the defender or who make violent hits. Even if it's still subjective, it would prevent some of the dumber calls we've seen with this rule.

 

People have been documenting these calls closely so far, and the ones I've seen called were ones where the player was not at full speed, the hit was not dangerous, it was not jarring, and it was not violent. I saw one where the blocker hit the defender so lightly on a kickoff return he probably didn't even know he'd been touched.