cayman

Hi guys...

I play in a mens 9 on 9 flag league, contact on the line and up field blocking open hands. I played contact football back in Vancouver, Canada but live in Miami now.

My question is related to football in general.

If a lineman is going to block a linebacker and the linebacker ducks the block sending the lineman over top of him, but doesn't step forward to attack the lineman's knees is it a penalty? Basically the LB is trying to avoid getting knocked out and more drops into a defensive position?

Cheers,

Canadian Speed

Hey!

Welcome!

Sounds like an awesome little league you guys got out there... Wish we had something like that around here.

So, with reguard to your question about the blocking thing... It's not a foul. It's kind of one of those trade off penalties like facemasking. There is no advantage to a running back grabbing a guy by the mask any more then there is an advantage for defensive player taking a flop and potentially getting pancaked...

That being said, it might be a rule they have in your league to keep things safer...

Like in the youth league that I coach in, there are no cut blocks or chopping and face masking is called on both sides as well... But then at a high school level here, the two exceptions are gone once again. So I think it comes down to a league thing in your case...

Why do you ask?

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cayman

well in our flag league we have rules that cater to flag but if their is ever a discussion over a rule we default to NFL rules.

In our rule book there is no mention of defensive chop block.

A situation occurred a few games back where a very large OL was just about to light up a smaller LB on a run play, when the LB dropped to a knee sideways and let the big guy fall over him. With no pads on I would have done the same thing.

The ruling was a "chop block", which I argued it wasn't because A) he was not blocking, b) he is a defender and c) there was no forward motion to attach the knees.

I have tried to google this but all I could find was EG.,that if a linebacker took out the knees of a up field lineman, so the corner could make the tackle on the RB.. it not a chop block but a "block below the waist".

thanks in advance.

Canadian Speed

I've honnestly NEVER seen this called... Ever! But again, I think that call that they wanted was something like "Contact Below the Waist" which would fit with a no contact league... And in the heat, the guy simply tried to call something that "sounded" cooooooler then that and as a result caused more confusion then he did assistance.

And FYI, you may want to suggest that your league default to NCAA rules since you can't find a decent NFL rule book online... However you can find the former.

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