This came across my Yahoo feed. I don’t have a dog in the hunt regarding Florida football, but this rule is a bit nuts. His helmet comes off and less than 2 seconds later he crossed the goal line. He was supposed to “go down” when his helmet came off. I kinda think that if he had done that, with all the players around him, he may well have gotten injured. Heck…it seems like the defender was trying to bring him down by the neck.
Although it didn’t involve a td, I saw that penalty called in another game today. First time I remember seeing it.
I never heard of that rule.
Seems the play should stop when the helmet comes off…
The Ref should blow the whistle to end the play!!
But the Penalty seems overkill!
Watch the video. They did blow the whistle.
But there was less than 2 seconds from the time the helmet came off until he crossed the goal like…he would have barely had time to stop illegally participating.
Believe that the College and the NFL rules differ. In both the NFL and college, the play is automatically blown dead when a helmet comes off. This is to protect the safety of the players.
However in college, there is a penalty for trying to advance the ball. Do not think that this applies to the Pros.
It’s the rule that’s stupid, not the call.
Agree… but the enforcement of the Penalty requires Judgement.
It is easy if the Helmet comes off at the 50 and he goes to score… but inside the 5 or even 10 requires some judgement as to whether stopping was realistic.
I agree and I haven’t seen how the rule is written but my guess is once an official sees a player in danger he blows the whistle immediately stopping the game.
I disagree with the penalty, the ball should have been placed where the runner was when the whistle was blown.
That’s what happened. But in college, those extra 2 seconds to go 2 yards was considered “illegal participation”. I agree with PP…had it happened closer to mid field and he continued to run, the sure, throw the flag. But the kid had less than 2 seconds to realize several things - his helmet came off, a whistle blew (that he may not have even heard) and he moved 2 yards. He was running pretty hard and I don’t think there was any way he could have stopped any sooner. So place the ball on the 4 but use better discretion in enforcing the penalty.