Another year of football is about to start and today NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino gave his 3 points of emphasis for the 2016-2017 season. These are the three rules that officials will buckle down on and you see called a thousand times whether you like it or not.
Blandino talked to out of all papers the Toronto Sun this morning which makes no sense because Toronto has no football team. But besides that he went over his 3 points of emphasis this is what he had to say on them.
#1 Low Hits on Quarterbacks
“One is low hits on the quarterback in the passing posture. That was something that we did see an increase in last year, so the competition committee wants us to emphasize that. The quarterback in the passing posture in the pocket gets protected from hits in the knee area or below — forcible hits. And it’s incumbent on the defender to avoid (that area) when the contact is avoidable. That will be an emphasis point. We’ve spent a lot of time with coaching staffs, and spent a lot of time looking at game video with our game officials.”
#2 protecting runners when sliding feet first
“We’re emphasizing runners — quarterbacks for the most part — who slide to gain additional protection. So any runner can slide feet first and gain special protection, and actually be treated like a player who’s down by contact. But the key is you have to slide feet first, and you have to slide before contact is imminent … If they slide any other way than feet first, they don’t get additional protection.”
This is a good one for Brady when he decides to leave the pocket and rush the ball.
#3 Crown-of-the-helmet hits
“We’re also looking at crown-of-the-helmet hits by defenders on runners outside the tackle box. That rule was put in 2013, and that will be an emphasis point. In the past the defender had to line up the runner, lower his head and use the crown to make forcible contact. The committee looked at that and we’re eliminating the line-up provision, so any forcible contact with the crown of the helmet — the very top of the helmet — to a runner outside of the tackle box will be a foul, regardless of the path the defender takes.
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