New rule that is gonna hurt the game

To start out my blog I am gonna address the hit by Reshad Jones on Justin Blackmon in the first UGA game. To ya'll that don't know the NCAA has established a new rule for the protection of defenseless players. I have provided the rule below. Here is a link to the hit so that if you can watch the hit again as I have many times.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uppzu_pGDc


NCAA Rules and RegulationsPROTECTION OF DEFENSELESS PLAYERS

The 2008 committeeintroduced a separate rule prohibiting initiating contact with and targeting adefenseless opponent (Rule 9-1-3).The following are situations in which defenseless players are susceptible toserious injury:

• The quarterback moving down the line of scrimmage who has handed or pitched the ball to a teammate, and then makes no attempt to participatefurther in the play;

• The kicker who is in the act of kicking the ball, or who has not had areasonable length of time to regain his balance after the kick;

• The passer who is in the act of throwing the ball, or who has not had areasonable length of time to participate in the play again after releasing theball;

• The pass receiver whose concentration is on the ball;

• The pass receiver who has clearly relaxed when the pass is no longercatchable;

• The kick receiver whose attention is on the downward flight of the ball;

• The kick receiver who has just touched the ball;

• The player who has relaxed once the ball has become dead; and

• The player who is obviously out of the play.
These players are protected by rules that have been in place for many years. Itis of the utmost importance that participants, coaches and game officials carefullyand diligently observe safety rules.


Ok, the biggest problem I have with this rule is what exactly do they mean by "the pass reciever whose concentration is on the ball". If you watch the clip from a technical standpoint they called it correct. I mean Blackmon touched the ball with his hands, but did not catch it immediately. However when you watch the clip his "concentration" was still on the ball after he touched it. So, do the DB's now have to wait until the reciever catches the ball to make contact. This is how you could interpret it the rule. Pass interference reads that once the ball is touched in flight you can make contact with the reciever. This rules pretty much contradicts it. I understand that they are trying to protect the recievers but I mean really. I am just hoping that this was a bad call which I firmly believe it was. The worst thing is about this rule is that it will definetly change the outcome of more then one game. Don't get me wrong this call did not cost the Dawgs the game. If we hadn't been called for a block in the back on the punt return or throw an interception then we would have been right in the game. This call did though give OSU a pretty easy chance to score again.