Hitting above the shoulder penalty....

[jburke]

I had not seen this call yet this year but tonight I saw like 2-3 in games I was watching. I get the idea is to protect these young men but to me the call is complete bull****. It takes away from the purity of the game and to me the refs seem to be using it more as a 'you hit him too hard' flag. I love like everyone when there is a hard hit in a game but with a fifteen yard penalty for it look for fewer and fewer. The main on that I remember was the ND Vs USC game, 3rd and long ND gets the stop on a hard hit by both the CB and LB converging on the receiver. They called the penalty on the CB, who IMO looked more like the victim in the replay. With penalties like this and the speed of the game it give the zebras one more wAy to dictate momentum, which completely blows......

[BigM]

I had not seen this call yet this year but tonight I saw like 2-3 in games I was watching. I get the idea is to protect these young men but to me the call is complete bull****. It takes away from the purity of the game and to me the refs seem to be using it more as a 'you hit him too hard' flag. I love like everyone when there is a hard hit in a game but with a fifteen yard penalty for it look for fewer and fewer. The main on that I remember was the ND Vs USC game, 3rd and long ND gets the stop on a hard hit by both the CB and LB converging on the receiver. They called the penalty on the CB, who IMO looked more like the victim in the replay. With penalties like this and the speed of the game it give the zebras one more wAy to dictate momentum, which completely blows......

its meant to prevent intentional shots to the head of vulnerible players like qbs after releasing a ball or recievers as they're looking up to make a catch, good rule but shaky implementation

[StormnClone58]

I had not seen this call yet this year but tonight I saw like 2-3 in games I was watching. I get the idea is to protect these young men but to me the call is complete bull****. It takes away from the purity of the game and to me the refs seem to be using it more as a 'you hit him too hard' flag. I love like everyone when there is a hard hit in a game but with a fifteen yard penalty for it look for fewer and fewer. The main on that I remember was the ND Vs USC game, 3rd and long ND gets the stop on a hard hit by both the CB and LB converging on the receiver. They called the penalty on the CB, who IMO looked more like the victim in the replay. With penalties like this and the speed of the game it give the zebras one more wAy to dictate momentum, which completely blows......

Its a protection penalty and if i recall from the usc nd game the commentators felt it was a 'leading with the crown' or 'targeting a defenseless player' penalty ... If the db had played the ball and not the player he would have had an int

[westlbcyclone]

If you watch the replay of the ISU one, it's not that it was an especially hard hit. It's because the defensive guys arm wrapped completely around barnett's head.
If that is not the play you are referring to, then the only other one I can think of off the top of my head the aTm guy pretty clearly led with his helmet. That's not "taking away from the purity of the game" because that is not how kids are taught to tackle at any level...Not a bash to the OP here, just my thoughts.

[InCytful]

That penalty is to stop intentional head-shots. They're calling it more and more, though usually they refer to the head, not to hits above the shoulder...

[azepp]

I thought this was a pretty questionable call in the ISU game tonight.

I get the intent of the rule, but it is called inconsistently at best. In the OK/TTU game the TTU player with the ball lowered his head resulting in the penalty. If he hadn't lowered his head the hit would have been on his pads and everything would have been ok. So the defensive player got called for a penalty that was caused by the actions of the offensive player.