Penalty Issues in Football
By Zach Gendron
Started 10/3/16 - Finished 10/22/16
I tend to rip on refs a lot and complain about calls and all that stuff (just check out my Twitter during a Michigan State game!), but this right here is real talk. As I was watching the terrible game that was the Michigan State - Indiana game, there was a controversial hit by Malik McDowell. I have included the video below, but basically what happened was that Malik hit the Indiana QB maybe slightly late (and every so slightly), after the ball was thrown. The hit occurred in the chest area of the QB. Malik was called for targeting, the play was reviewed, and upheld because Malik led with the crown of his helmet. Now, the point of this isn't to debate if Malik's hit was legal or not, or if it changed the game, or any of that. The main point of this shorter "opinion essay" is just to show that something has to happen with the NCAA/NFL/refs/etc in order to increase the safety of players. There are 4 main incidents that I thought of that just show this problem.
If you look at the gifs, there are 4 all together. I'll call them 1 (UL), 2 (M), 3 (UR), and 4 (B).
1. ND - Texas
2. Stanford - UCLA
3. WMU - CMU
4. MSU - IU
Out of the 4 of these examples, only one was determined to be "illegal."
The bottom one.
In the age where these targeting plays can be called by the refs and the overturned and sometimes even called by the replay booth, you'd think there would be a better control of the situation. But for examples 1, 2, and 3, each one of these plays were reviewed and were found to be legal, even though there was clear helmet - helmet contact, launching, etc. in all of them. In example 4 as stated earlier and as you can clearly see in the gif, he was just going for a clean tackle and wasn't even close to helmet - helmet contact, but yet the play was CALLED targeting, REVIEWED, and UPHELD! I fully understand that he led with the crown of the helmet, and if that is in the rulebook then it has to be called. I'm fine with that! What I'm not fine with though, is if you call that targeting, the other three CLEARLY have to be called and upheld too. No if, ands, or buts about it.
Now, as a little finishing up example I'll switch to the NFL real quick. In multiple occasions Cam Newton has been hit in the head where the play was just absolutely dangerous, but the league doesn't really worry about it because he is a big money maker. So they don't worry about player safety and concussions and the future problems that could cause, but they fine players for wearing custom shoes or celebrating and having a little fun after a big play or TD (ex. flexing or taking your helmet off)? To me it just makes no sense, and something needs to change.
©ZG16
