IdaGriz01
Well-known member
This post will be a bit vague on specifics. Since Thursday, we have watched a few games more-or-less totally, saw look-in snippets of probably twenty more, and God-knows how many on highlight replay shows. Wish someone who gets paid would compile some firms stats -- saw one claim that there was at least a dozen just on the weekend.
Anyway, we would project that there were more than a dozen targeting calls, and ejections, during the opening of the 2018 football season. There were probably some that could have been called but weren’t. All of the ones we saw on replays were easy calls. One was particularly egregious: Not only did he hit the guy in the mouth with the crown of his helmet, he launched himself so his feet were way off the ground.
FWIW: We saw at least two (one each way) that might have been called in the Griz game.
Ejection (often with a 15-yard penalty) seems like a harsh penalty, but it’s apparently necessary. Yes, it can be hard to break a bad habit, but a lot of guys have failed to get the message … so I guess the harshness is needed.
It’s so stupid. Helmet-to-helmet can give both players a concussion, or at least a severe blow to the brain. You’d think that, out of self-preservation, tacklers would relearn how to do it right.
And the alternative does not have to be “wimpy.” We saw one classic (new-style) hit ...my wife and I both think it was in the NAU-UTEP game, but after all the games we saw, they tend to run together. The tackler kept his head up (mostly) and drilled his “target” in the rib cage with his shoulder. Absolutely the kind of hit that connoisseurs of “hard nose” football love to see … and completely legal. In the “worst case” scenario, the target gets a cracked or broken rib and the tackler gets a separated shoulder (neither happened). But those are not generally injuries that stay with you for your whole life (which can certainly happen with blows to the head).
I saw at least one article that claimed the ejection part is the “Dumbest Rule in College Football,” and otherwise described it as “idiotic.” The writer felt that the officials should somehow figure out how to tell the different between “it just happened” versus “malicious” and “deliberate.” Personally, I don’t see how you make that distinction. So, as I said above, the strict interpretation is probably needed until more players get the message.
What think you?
Anyway, we would project that there were more than a dozen targeting calls, and ejections, during the opening of the 2018 football season. There were probably some that could have been called but weren’t. All of the ones we saw on replays were easy calls. One was particularly egregious: Not only did he hit the guy in the mouth with the crown of his helmet, he launched himself so his feet were way off the ground.
FWIW: We saw at least two (one each way) that might have been called in the Griz game.
Ejection (often with a 15-yard penalty) seems like a harsh penalty, but it’s apparently necessary. Yes, it can be hard to break a bad habit, but a lot of guys have failed to get the message … so I guess the harshness is needed.
It’s so stupid. Helmet-to-helmet can give both players a concussion, or at least a severe blow to the brain. You’d think that, out of self-preservation, tacklers would relearn how to do it right.
And the alternative does not have to be “wimpy.” We saw one classic (new-style) hit ...my wife and I both think it was in the NAU-UTEP game, but after all the games we saw, they tend to run together. The tackler kept his head up (mostly) and drilled his “target” in the rib cage with his shoulder. Absolutely the kind of hit that connoisseurs of “hard nose” football love to see … and completely legal. In the “worst case” scenario, the target gets a cracked or broken rib and the tackler gets a separated shoulder (neither happened). But those are not generally injuries that stay with you for your whole life (which can certainly happen with blows to the head).
I saw at least one article that claimed the ejection part is the “Dumbest Rule in College Football,” and otherwise described it as “idiotic.” The writer felt that the officials should somehow figure out how to tell the different between “it just happened” versus “malicious” and “deliberate.” Personally, I don’t see how you make that distinction. So, as I said above, the strict interpretation is probably needed until more players get the message.
What think you?
