New ejection enforcement of NCAA football targeting rules is daunting task for officials

To know why football has become what it is in America, one need only Google the name Sammy White. Use a search engine and you automatically discover not just what you want to know but what everyone else wants to know. And it's plain why people remember Sammy White.

Here's a guy who was one of the best receivers in the National Football League for a full decade, valued so highly by the Minnesota Vikings that he played his whole career with them. NFL rookie of the year in 1976, 3-time All-Pro. Before Cris Carter and Randy Moss came along, White retired as the club's career leader in receiving yards and TDs (50).

But why does anyone recall Sammy White? Because he was the victim of one of the most ferocious hits in the history of the game.

You can rationalize it however you want. That the balletic catches and the perfect spirals and long, broken-field runs and the strategy and decision-making are among the great attractions of the game.

I don't care what anyone says. Big hits are the biggest reason people watch football. That's why they always have.

Next to White's name is this: ?People also search for Jack Tatum.? In the post-1976 Super Bowl, it was the Oakland Raiders safety who played an oncoming freight train as White ran a deep crossing route. He caught a pass over the middle from Fran Tarkenton and then was met with such concussive 180-degree force by Tatum that his helmet snapped off and bounced seven yards from the play.

No one remembers that a semiconscious White actually held onto the ball and got a first down. What they remember is that hit. It remained emblematic of a 32-14 win by the bad-boy Raiders.

I don't know what will become of football in the next 20 years. The next generation of football fans may come to cheer for a different game and regard this age and prior as some sort of Dark Ages before people became enlightened enough to realize what such hits do to brains.

It's worth noting that Tatum died three years ago, largely uncelebrated by his peers and something of a loner. He was feared but far from beloved by them.

And yet, like Mike Tyson in his prime, he is still remembered by fans of my age with awe. His hits embodied the core of why we watched football and still do today.

But changes in the game are coming and they should. Because neurologists know so much more now than they did in Tatum's era about what happens to the brain when ball-carriers are victimized in such a way, there is no other choice.

The problem is, the game will be disrupted. That's the necessary cost. If you believe in the cause, then just get ready for it because, especially for the next few years, it's going to be messy and annoying, especially at the college level.

We began to hear early this week in officials' presentations at ACC and Big 12 media days just what's in store in order to enforce new ejection penalties on targeting the head with hits. The most stunning interpretation: South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney's hit on Michigan running back Vincent Smith in last season's Outback Bowl -- what was considered a textbook tackle -- would likely be cause for ejection now.

Clowney's hit received no flag. I don't think it should have. His helmet hit Smith's chest, then rode up into his mask from sheer force. Did Smith possess the ball yet? Well, he was taking the handoff. Does that make him defenseless? The revisiting and interpretation of this play by referee supervisors in preseason conferences shows what's coming.

The thing is, these rules have been on the books at the college level for five years. The ante for punishment has just been raised. And I don't see how officials are going to make this work. It's a near-impossible task. This is how they are worded in the NCAA football guide:

Rule 9-1, Article 3: Targeting/Initiating Contact With the Crown of the Helmet. No player shall target and initiate contact against an opponent with the crown (top) of his helmet. When in question, it is a foul.

Rule 9-1, Article 4: Defenseless Player: Contact to Head or Neck Area. No player shall target and initiate contact to the head or neck area of a defenseless opponent with the helmet, forearm, elbow or shoulder. When in question, it is a foul.

Anyone who's played football even at the high school level knows that collisions cannot be choreographed. They happen too quickly.

If you're a defender, most often you don't have the luxury to ?target? anything with a hit. You try to shed off your blocker, find the ball-carrier through a screen of tangled, moving bodies, claw to him any way you can, then get a piece of him however possible.

And the fraction of a second where you thrust toward that contact is almost never balanced. It's most often chaotic, flailing, completely out of control. You don't even know all the time whether the target has the ball yet. Or when he's been wrapped up and can't escape. You just keep coming until the whistle.

Then, there is the hardwired tendency of all players to use their helmets as weapons. One of the first things you learn as a football player is what a force that padded piece of plastic can be. Guys with bigger heads actually have an advantage simply because their helmets must be bigger. And no matter whether coaches teach to hit with the shoulder and the head up, players know how to inflict pain. Helmets do the trick.

What makes it all sketchier is the allowance at the college level for ball-carriers to lead with their heads in traffic, yet defenders cannot lead with theirs. When you play football, even at the middle-school level, good coaches teach you about the physics of collisions. And the first rule is: Get low. Low man wins. That's how you get leverage.

When you get low as a tackler, especially late in the game when you are dying of fatigue, the crown of your helmet is going to dip on occasion before you make a hit. When a ball-carrier gets low, you may aim for a ball-carrier's torso and end up hitting his head with your forearm attempting to wrap up. Simply because things happen so damn fast.

And that's the real problem with the new enforcement. Ejections will be handed out if officials believe a defender intended to use his helmet, if they interpret that he knew the ball-carrier was ?defenseless.? And defenders simply cannot alter their body trajectory in such a split-second timeframe.

Not only that, officials are being taught that, if there's any doubt, throw the flag. Let the replay official sort it out.

Let's not even consider how many delays we're going to see as replay refs sit in a booth with millions of people watching as they attempt to interpret exactly where the ?crown? of a helmet begins, whether a closing safety ?targeted? a ball-carrier's head or just ended up there. I just would not want to be that guy in the booth. He has the next 31-to-60 minutes of a player's career in his hands trying to make a decision in a couple of minutes based on intent he may very easily not be able to read.

What we will certainly see is a much more tentative attitude from defensive football players. They will simply not be able to be as aggressive anymore for fear of ejection.

How will that affect the game and how will fans react to what they are watching? I think it will take five years or so for these changes to fully occur. And by about 2020, we may be watching a very different game.

Will we continue watching it? Are we hopelessly programmed to seek the visceral appeal of the concussive hit? Or can we adapt to a sport that looks more like a videogame?

I don't believe we have any choice. The enforcement changes are happening for good reasons. But the transition period promises to be a mess.

DAVID JONES: djones@pennlive.com.

Source: http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/07/new_ejection_enforcement_of_nc.html

breaking bad food network star British Open 2012 bane Aurora Colorado Rajesh Khanna friday the 13th