Targeting and other "safety" rules

[bigboxes]

Am I the only one that dislikes these rules or at least the interpretation of these rules? Last night our guy gets a targeting call and ejection. I feel if you don't lower your head or make the play with your helmet then there should be no call. Hitting is part of the game. If you're just following through it's just football. I realize that the game is changed. I'm all for player safety, but when you make it difficult to touch an opponent then it's no longer football as we know it. Might as well give them strips of cloth to hang on their waist.

Another thing, I wish they'd get rid of the outside the tackles passing rule. Grounding is grounding. If you're just trying to avoid a loss then too bad. Wrap the ball up and run for the line of scrimmage or out of bounds if you can't find someone to throw it to. If you're afraid of contact then just fall to the ground.

Then there's call on our punt coverage. Little nit picky calls are ruining the game. Or how about the horse collar rule? Talk about arbitrary. Just my opinion...

/rant

 

[schuele]

Glen Mason made a point last night that I've felt for a long time: A 5-yard penalty is needed for when a player in punt coverage gets too close to or just brushes the return man. It's a 15-yard penalty whether you breathe on the returner or take his head off, which makes no sense.

 

[bigboxes]

Glen Mason made a point last night that I've felt for a long time: A 5-yard penalty is needed for when a player in punt coverage gets too close to or just brushes the return man. It's a 15-yard penalty whether you breathe on the returner or take his head off, which makes no sense.

Yeah, I agreed with Mason on that one.

 

[topdecktiger]

It's a classic case of overcompensating. They get so wrapped up in trying to prevent something (although the sentiment is justified) that they simply get a blind spot and refuse to see that these rules aren't really making the game safer and are causing more harm than good.

The intentional grounding rule is a classic example. The idea is to give the quarterback a lot of leeway so he can get rid of the ball and avoid a hard hit. However, the wide leeway granted by the rule encourages more passing, so a quarterback that would normally only throw ~20 times a game now throws ~40 times a game, and thus be more exposed to hits.

The biggest problem is that the rulemakers try to get too specific and intricate, for example making any contact with the head an automatic penalty. What they need to do is group all this under the general personal foul category, and train the referees to penalize blatant, rather than incidental, contact.