BAMANEWSBOT
Staff
Fans are gnashing their teeth over the rule, but the targeting penalty is necessary because football itself is a target, Steve Shaw, the coordinator of football officials for the SEC, told the Gulf Coast Athletic Club on Monday night."Our game is absolutely under attack, there's no question about that," Shaw said. "Even the president of the United States said, 'If I had a son, I'm not sure I'd let him play football.' We may pass that off, but those are impactful words. There're a lot of people out there with lawsuits. The NFL has just settled a lawsuit, but it's not over. That's just the first stage.
"From my perspective, I believe targeting - where you target a defenseless player above the shoulders, is what the rule says, or you use the crown or top of your helmet to deliver a blow -- those are dangerous acts. You get concussions and, when you use the crown or top of your helmet, that's when you get catastrophic injuries.
"I'm just going to tell you our game is under attack, and I believe that coaches, players and officials have to make a change in our game or we're going to have people changing our game that we don't want changing our game. We have got to make some changes with our game or people are going to change it for us."
Shaw called targeting "the most significant rule change" to come into football during his more than two decades in collegiate officiating. But the rule is accomplishing its objective, he said, and with one change could be made more palatable for everyone involved.
A player flagged for targeting also earns an automatic ejection this season, but that ejection can be overturned if the instant-replay official determines that the call was erroneous. However, the 15-yard penalty for targeting cannot be overturned, even though, by allowing the player to stay on the field, the replay is confirming that the penalty was wrongly accessed.
An example occurred Saturday in Vanderbilt's 31-27 upset of Georgia. A hit by Georgia's Ramik Wilson on Jonathan Krause caused an incompletion on a fourth-and-4 pass from the Bulldogs 30-yard line. Georgia led 27-14 at the time. Wilson was called for targeting, but he was allowed to stay in the game when replay showed he'd delivered his hit with his right shoulder, not his helmet. However, Vanderbilt still advanced the ball 15 yards on the penalty with a new set of downs on its way to a touchdown - part of its 17 points in the final 4:41 of the game.
Shaw said this was the "biggest complaint we've had" about the targeting rule.
"I hope we can get the rules committee to look very, very closely at this," Shaw said. "Now, if you're guilty of a targeting foul but instant replay overturns it, the 15-yard penalty stands. I think we need to look at that and consider removing that as well.
"The reason it didn't get removed is because the rules committee does not want the game to be officiated from the replay booth. We've been careful not to cross over the line. What I mean by that is factual information - Did he step on the line? Was the ball bobbled? Was it fumbled? Did he break the plane of goal line? - those are the types of factual things we put in replay's hands. But we've never said: Was that holding or not? Was that pass interference or not? We don't want to make that judgment. That's that bright line we don't want to cross.
"I think the rules committee thought if they overturned the targeting, they might have to make a decision on that bright line. The example would be: What if you had a roughing the passer and targeting? Let's say you review it, and it's not targeting, but it still might be roughing the passer, and then they'd have to get into that.
"I think there's a way we can solve that for next year, but that's the reason we didn't go there. I think if we do that, there'll be a much better level of acceptance. The game is never going to be perfectly safe, but this is going to go a long way."
Shaw said the rule was not intended to change the game.
"My hope would be that we change player behavior, but we don't change our great game," Shaw said. "The (Jadaveon) Clowney hit in the bowl game last year -- everybody's seen that from the South Carolina-Michigan game. That's not a foul, and that's as hard a lick as you can deliver in a football game, I believe. This rule is not designed to take the physical part out of football. What it's designed to do is take those high head hits out of the game.
"Last year, it was controversial to the fans, but there was a defensive back, a freshman, Trae Elston at Ole Miss, who got suspended by the commissioner after a play in a game where he came in and hit a receiver right in the head. Used the crown of his helmet. It had everything about targeting. His reaction in the game: He was hopping up and down, chest-bumping. The UTEP player is laying down in the end zone, had a concussion, out of the game. And he was going around high-fiving and chest-bumping because he thought he had just delivered the 'SportsCenter' hit of the night.
"He got flagged two weeks ago -- again another high hit on a receiver -- and his immediate reaction was, 'Oh, no.' That's the difference. That's what we've got to get -- from the celebratory part of this to 'I've got to stay off their heads.'"
Shaw said the targeting rule is not removing a fundamental part of the game but was more like a course correction.
"If you go back -- and they have them on all through the summer -- and you watch SEC football games from the late '80s or early '90s and before that, this targeting, this missile impact where a guy leads with his head, it wasn't in the game," Shaw said. "So we're not ruining the game of a hundred years ago. That play was never in the game. That is a recent phenomenon, and that's the play we've got to get out."
Shaw said concerns about the targeting rule had opened a wider dialogue between players, coaches and officials.
"We've never had more conversations with coaches and players about proper technique," Shaw said. "I go to every school in the summer, and I talk to the players, and they ask, 'What am I supposed to do?' And we give them three pieces of advice. No. 1, keep your head up. See what you hit. Lower your target is No. 2. And then No. 3 is wrap your arms up. I even had a player say, 'If you wrap up, you just can't hit them as hard.' I said, 'Go back and watch the Clowney play from the bowl game.' That was perfect."
"From my perspective, I believe targeting - where you target a defenseless player above the shoulders, is what the rule says, or you use the crown or top of your helmet to deliver a blow -- those are dangerous acts. You get concussions and, when you use the crown or top of your helmet, that's when you get catastrophic injuries.
"I'm just going to tell you our game is under attack, and I believe that coaches, players and officials have to make a change in our game or we're going to have people changing our game that we don't want changing our game. We have got to make some changes with our game or people are going to change it for us."
Shaw called targeting "the most significant rule change" to come into football during his more than two decades in collegiate officiating. But the rule is accomplishing its objective, he said, and with one change could be made more palatable for everyone involved.
A player flagged for targeting also earns an automatic ejection this season, but that ejection can be overturned if the instant-replay official determines that the call was erroneous. However, the 15-yard penalty for targeting cannot be overturned, even though, by allowing the player to stay on the field, the replay is confirming that the penalty was wrongly accessed.
An example occurred Saturday in Vanderbilt's 31-27 upset of Georgia. A hit by Georgia's Ramik Wilson on Jonathan Krause caused an incompletion on a fourth-and-4 pass from the Bulldogs 30-yard line. Georgia led 27-14 at the time. Wilson was called for targeting, but he was allowed to stay in the game when replay showed he'd delivered his hit with his right shoulder, not his helmet. However, Vanderbilt still advanced the ball 15 yards on the penalty with a new set of downs on its way to a touchdown - part of its 17 points in the final 4:41 of the game.
Shaw said this was the "biggest complaint we've had" about the targeting rule.
"I hope we can get the rules committee to look very, very closely at this," Shaw said. "Now, if you're guilty of a targeting foul but instant replay overturns it, the 15-yard penalty stands. I think we need to look at that and consider removing that as well.
"The reason it didn't get removed is because the rules committee does not want the game to be officiated from the replay booth. We've been careful not to cross over the line. What I mean by that is factual information - Did he step on the line? Was the ball bobbled? Was it fumbled? Did he break the plane of goal line? - those are the types of factual things we put in replay's hands. But we've never said: Was that holding or not? Was that pass interference or not? We don't want to make that judgment. That's that bright line we don't want to cross.
"I think the rules committee thought if they overturned the targeting, they might have to make a decision on that bright line. The example would be: What if you had a roughing the passer and targeting? Let's say you review it, and it's not targeting, but it still might be roughing the passer, and then they'd have to get into that.
"I think there's a way we can solve that for next year, but that's the reason we didn't go there. I think if we do that, there'll be a much better level of acceptance. The game is never going to be perfectly safe, but this is going to go a long way."
Shaw said the rule was not intended to change the game.
"My hope would be that we change player behavior, but we don't change our great game," Shaw said. "The (Jadaveon) Clowney hit in the bowl game last year -- everybody's seen that from the South Carolina-Michigan game. That's not a foul, and that's as hard a lick as you can deliver in a football game, I believe. This rule is not designed to take the physical part out of football. What it's designed to do is take those high head hits out of the game.
"Last year, it was controversial to the fans, but there was a defensive back, a freshman, Trae Elston at Ole Miss, who got suspended by the commissioner after a play in a game where he came in and hit a receiver right in the head. Used the crown of his helmet. It had everything about targeting. His reaction in the game: He was hopping up and down, chest-bumping. The UTEP player is laying down in the end zone, had a concussion, out of the game. And he was going around high-fiving and chest-bumping because he thought he had just delivered the 'SportsCenter' hit of the night.
"He got flagged two weeks ago -- again another high hit on a receiver -- and his immediate reaction was, 'Oh, no.' That's the difference. That's what we've got to get -- from the celebratory part of this to 'I've got to stay off their heads.'"
Shaw said the targeting rule is not removing a fundamental part of the game but was more like a course correction.
"If you go back -- and they have them on all through the summer -- and you watch SEC football games from the late '80s or early '90s and before that, this targeting, this missile impact where a guy leads with his head, it wasn't in the game," Shaw said. "So we're not ruining the game of a hundred years ago. That play was never in the game. That is a recent phenomenon, and that's the play we've got to get out."
Shaw said concerns about the targeting rule had opened a wider dialogue between players, coaches and officials.
"We've never had more conversations with coaches and players about proper technique," Shaw said. "I go to every school in the summer, and I talk to the players, and they ask, 'What am I supposed to do?' And we give them three pieces of advice. No. 1, keep your head up. See what you hit. Lower your target is No. 2. And then No. 3 is wrap your arms up. I even had a player say, 'If you wrap up, you just can't hit them as hard.' I said, 'Go back and watch the Clowney play from the bowl game.' That was perfect."
