Proposed changes to "targeting"...
I've been thinking about targeting and how it's called and often miscalled, even with benefit of replay. It seems to me many have been missing the fact that things are generally moving pretty fast on a football field. In my view, the video Brian posted of Kiel being targeted is nowhere near as obvious as he posits. It's clear the defender initially wants to tackle the quarterback. He then adjusts his plan to just lay a hit on the quarterback before he is able to slide to the ground (I'd assume both to deliver a blow and to save forward progress). Whether he is actually going for the head is really tough to say. Both bodies are moving in 3 dimensions over the course of less than .5 sec. This is exactly why I thought the Bolden call against MSU was awful and why the play in which Rudock was knocked out against Minny was close.
Alternatively, the other hit on Rudock (along the sideline) by Minny was CLEARLY targeting, including using the crown of the helmet. So was last year's Minny hit on Morris and the open field blindside hit by Rutgers a couple weeks ago.
I would propose 3 things to improve the system:
1) penalize leading with the crown of the helmet in any open field situation.
2) during replay review evaluate whether the vertical plane of the victim's head is constant or near constant. If it is and there's helmet to helmet there's no question as to the defender's intentions
3) Figure out a way to allow a qb to slide to safety without allowing him additional yardage during his slide. Both Rudock and Kiel waited until the last second to go down and neither's knee was down when they got hit. The defender has to be able to limit the progress of the qb and hitting him is the only way to do so. There should be an expansion of the NFL rule requiring that defenders pull up immediately when the slide is being initiated, but also placing the ball down at that spot, not as far forward as the qb can jump. (I have a similar problem with guys tiptoeing the sideline absolutely as far as they can and then the defender taking a 15 yd penalty for delivering a hit as the runner's foot touches outside the boundary).
November 17th, 2015 at 4:56 PM ^
But I'd take it out of the conference's hands and put it in the hands of an independent panel. The referees have shown to be too inconsistent with enforcing the rule.
If it's not obvious to throw the kid out, without replay, let the kid play. After the game, the tape can be sent to the independent panel who can determine if a 1-game suspension is necessary. Now that every conference has the same goal of getting teams into the playoff, I'd rather a neutral source decide these things to keep everyone on the same playing field.
November 17th, 2015 at 5:00 PM ^
They need to allow retroactive enforcement to get it right every time. This probably means they can't immediately throw people out, except in extremely clear cases. I kind of like Brian's yellow card/red card idea. But I also think the bans need to have the potential to be for longer than one game, especially for repeat offenders. And coaches need to be disciplined, too, with significant fines and even game bans for head and position coaches of teams that do this on a regular basis.
November 17th, 2015 at 6:21 PM ^
November 17th, 2015 at 6:58 PM ^
Abolish the ejection part of the penalty. Only call targeting for the the no-brainer launching kill shots to the head. Football is a fast game...helmet to helmet contact is inevitable.