New Rules

[IndyBison]

Question for Indy.

I've noticed that after a TD an offical often runs over to the players and tries to get them to not celebrate much (watch Brock Jensen's playoff TD run in the FFD). It happens often enough that I'm sure officials are taught to do it. It bugs me when they do that. It's almost like they're looking for a confrontation.

I am not advocating taunting of your opponent at all, but rather a natural display of joy after scoring a big TD. After all, isn't that the point of the game?

The quicker you can get to the player with the ball the less likely they are to do something stupid. As we heard repeatedly at a clinic I attended, we have to allow "immediate, exhuberant, spontaneous act by a teenager". It is a pretty fine line and will never be 100% consistent no matter how much leagues and officials try to define specific things that are fouls. The best thing I can is to don't do anything that makes the official have to think about it whether or not it crossed the line.

[IndyBison]

I don't like that part of the rule. So is any personal foul on the offense bringing a TD back? I'm asking because this would have unintended consequences, such as a defenders going after offensive players on any TD hoping that the offensive player retaliates. Even if it has to be an unsportmans-like taunting call, that's too fine a line in my opinion. It's like having a law that says speeding is a hefty fine but exhibition driving is the death penalty.

Not a big fan of this rule change - limit it to the person scoring the TD or don't make the change at all.

Unsportsmanlike conduct (UNS) and personal foul (PF) are two completely different fouls that players, fans, and coaches often get confused. Generally, UNS does not involve contact and PF does. What this rule change does is makes UNS more consistent with all other live ball fouls (including PF). There was an exception for UNS to treat it as a dead ball foul. That exception goes now goes away.

The philosophy we've been taught is to treat the action as a dead ball foul if at all possible. What you are describing above would be a PF because the retaliation likely will be a push, shove or some other kind of contact. Since it's usually difficult for the calling official well behind a play to determine if the PF well behind a TD happened before or after the down ended, it's usually handled as a dead ball foul. A similar philosophy will apply for UNS.

This will not be a major issue. There are not that many live ball UNS anyway (our conference has had only 2 or 3 the past 3 years). With this new rule coaches will be talking about this pretty heavy. If even one happens early everyone will use it as an example. You won't see it happen very often. Coaches wanted to see it go away which is why the rules committee (made up mostly of coaches and athletic directors) came up with the rule.

[Gully]

The quicker you can get to the player with the ball the less likely they are to do something stupid. As we heard repeatedly at a clinic I attended, we have to allow "immediate, exhuberant, spontaneous act by a teenager". It is a pretty fine line and will never be 100% consistent no matter how much leagues and officials try to define specific things that are fouls. The best thing I can is to don't do anything that makes the official have to think about it whether or not it crossed the line.

Go cut your lawn.

[IndyBison]

Go cut your lawn.

Thanks for paying attention! I did. And now three inches of rain are covering it.