Facemask rule interpretation

This likely has been brought up before but I'm curious why NFL and college has rules against all players except skill position players regarding hands to the face and face mask . Ball handlers are allowed to shove their hand in tacklers face at times coming close to breaking their neck yet if that same defender touched ball carriers face mask will draw a flag.

Uhearditherefirst":cut18kl5 said:

This likely has been brought up before but I'm curious why NFL and college has rules against all players except skill position players regarding hands to the face and face mask . Ball handlers are allowed to shove their hand in tacklers face at times coming close to breaking their neck yet if that same defender touched ball carriers face mask will draw a flag.

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Its a fair point, has me bemused also.

It's getting worse every year with nothing done about it. I could understand if a defensive player led with his helmet and ball carriers stiff arm the crown but Majority of time defensive players has kept his head up like he is trained to do only to have ball carriers snap their head back and at times have caused injury. I get you can't take away stiff arm just shouldn't be allowed in face mask area

Uhearditherefirst":22tymp2x said:

It's getting worse every year with nothing done about it. I could understand if a defensive player led with his helmet and ball carriers stiff arm the crown but Majority of time defensive players has kept his head up like he is trained to do only to have ball carriers snap their head back and at times have caused injury. I get you can't take away stiff arm just shouldn't be allowed in face mask area

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It's fine, they have to do it with open hand and not grabbing a mask or it's a penalty, quit trying to pussify the league anymore then it already is.

Respect your opinion but my point is why is it okay. Lineman use open hand to the face and get called Everytime. They don't have to grab to get called..

chris98251":2w4ayyr1 said:

Uhearditherefirst":2w4ayyr1 said:

It's getting worse every year with nothing done about it. I could understand if a defensive player led with his helmet and ball carriers stiff arm the crown but Majority of time defensive players has kept his head up like he is trained to do only to have ball carriers snap their head back and at times have caused injury. I get you can't take away stiff arm just shouldn't be allowed in face mask area

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It's fine, they have to do it with open hand and not grabbing a mask or it's a penalty, quit trying to pussify the league anymore then it already is.

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Lol

Washington49er":yqx9kh88 said:

chris98251":yqx9kh88 said:

Uhearditherefirst":yqx9kh88 said:

It's getting worse every year with nothing done about it. I could understand if a defensive player led with his helmet and ball carriers stiff arm the crown but Majority of time defensive players has kept his head up like he is trained to do only to have ball carriers snap their head back and at times have caused injury. I get you can't take away stiff arm just shouldn't be allowed in face mask area

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It's fine, they have to do it with open hand and not grabbing a mask or it's a penalty, quit trying to pussify the league anymore then it already is.

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Lol

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Second this :lol: :lol: :lol: :2thumbs:

If the metarule is gonna be that rules have to change to minimize head injury/CTE risk, then this particular rule should change too.

SantaClaraHawk":2wqb6mca said:

If the metarule is gonna be that rules have to change to minimize head injury/CTE risk, then this particular rule should change too.

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If a RB can't protect himself running the ball then get rid of the position, is he suppose to stand and wait till the would be tackler gets close enough to shove him in the shoulder pads, you never played the game obviously like many others and should have no dog in this fight. Another person that can't understand how you play positions. This is like a D lineman hitting a QB when he is already committed to a tackle and the QB releases the football and he grazes a helmet with no real impact and they throw a flag, or throw a flag for roughing when the release and tackle happen at the same time.

RB's protect themselves this way it's avoiding a would be tackle, try extending your arm when someone is chasing you or coming at you from the side and what will you contact first, his feet, his knees, his chest, his shoulder or his head before he is close enough to make the tackle due to lean and launch for a tackle as well as height level and arm level of the RB or WR really once they become a ball carrier.

Well, Russ' facemask was twisted clearly sideways on the Niners "touchdown" that magically got them back in the game at Santa Clara. Why? Because they CHOSE to ignore it. Like they did on Sunday night with the obvious PI. And like they CHOSE to ignore the most blatant PI of all time in the Saints/Lambs game last season.

SoulfishHawk":23z53n1x said:

Well, Russ' facemask was twisted clearly sideways on the Niners "touchdown" that magically got them back in the game at Santa Clara. Why? Because they CHOSE to ignore it. Like they did on Sunday night with the obvious PI. And like they CHOSE to ignore the most blatant PI of all time in the Saints/Lambs game last season.

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That didn't take long.

The truth never does.
Congrats on the win Sunday. Your boys looked impressive, seriously. Damn good team from top to bottom.

SoulfishHawk":3e3rm948 said:

The truth never does.
Congrats on the win Sunday. Your boys looked impressive, seriously. Damn good team from top to bottom.

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Thanks. I do wish the league would do something about the referees. It would be nice to not have all the controversial calls that seem to be a weekly thing now.

Seems like they could have someone up in the press box who sees what we see. A quick buzz down to the refs to tell them someone was missed. Doesn't seem that hard for a billion dollar industry to get something so important right.
I mean, the Saints lost a Super Bowl birth because of a non-call. That's just not acceptable.

SoulfishHawk":11qskqtf said:

Seems like they could have someone up in the press box who sees what we see. A quick buzz down to the refs to tell them someone was missed. Doesn't seem that hard for a billion dollar industry to get something so important right.
I mean, the Saints lost a Super Bowl birth because of a non-call. That's just not acceptable.

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They do and did, said it was non call because both OPI and DPI could be called which is why they let it go.

Again, agree to disagree.

chris98251":a3ry5b2u said:

RB's protect themselves this way it's avoiding a would be tackle, try extending your arm when someone is chasing you or coming at you from the side and what will you contact first, his feet, his knees, his chest, his shoulder or his head before he is close enough to make the tackle due to lean and launch for a tackle as well as height level and arm level of the RB or WR really once they become a ball carrier.

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If true, you'd see the stiff arms contacting the head more for better advantage, but most times it's in the chest area.

Uhearditherefirst":28yd5145 said:

Respect your opinion but my point is why is it okay. Lineman use open hand to the face and get called Everytime. They don't have to grab to get called..

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Because normally in games that I have watched, the hands to the face has been under the facemask and a push upward to the head pushing the head back to the shoulder pads rear neck area. That is not compliant with the normal trying to lie t us telling us they are making rules to not hurt the players and make the smashball more dainty. We call it BS...they call it being more safe.

SantaClaraHawk":15621f69 said:

chris98251":15621f69 said:

RB's protect themselves this way it's avoiding a would be tackle, try extending your arm when someone is chasing you or coming at you from the side and what will you contact first, his feet, his knees, his chest, his shoulder or his head before he is close enough to make the tackle due to lean and launch for a tackle as well as height level and arm level of the RB or WR really once they become a ball carrier.

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If true, you'd see the stiff arms contacting the head more for better advantage, but most times it's in the chest area.

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No RB is sticking his arm into a chest area while he is running the ball, directly in front of him he would lower his shoulder, off to the side it's almost impossible, trailing him again is he stopping to do this?

The only way that would happen is if the defender isn't ready to tackle and is standing upright, when you make a tackle your typically leading with head then shoulder, head ideally off to the side when close enough.

Old RB Larry Csonka of the 70's Miami Dolphins was once called for a personal foul as a ball-carrier for abusing a tackler with a forearm smash to the helmet, but that's the only one I know of where a ball-carrier got penalized.

Sometimes they'll call it when the RB/ball carrier grabs it excessively and for a looooong time, but even then it's pretty rare. It's just another example in my opinion of how most rules in the NFL are enforced strictly against defenders and all but ignored when an offensive player does the same thing. They want scores. They don't want offenses getting shut down too often.