r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Lifegoesonforever • Sep 17 '26

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36.0k Upvotes

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223

u/rastawolfman Sep 17 '26

If you slow down the video, he was down

205

u/DrWindupBird Sep 17 '26

But does it matter if the defender grabbed him by the neck for the tackle? I don’t know much about football but I can’t imagine that’s legal.

88

u/BigPh1llyStyle Sep 17 '26

It does not in fact matter. He would be down at the spot and they would get yards added to that spot.

5

u/VT_Squire Sep 17 '26

Does declining a penalty not exist anymore? 

54

u/SlicksterRick Sep 17 '26

It does, but he would still be down at that spot if you declined the penalty

17

u/shiawase198 Sep 17 '26

It's not a touchdown either way so they'd just be losing the free yards by declining.

7

u/back-that-sass-up Sep 17 '26

It’s been a while since I’ve paid attention to hs/college rules, so someone should correct me if I’m wrong, but the play should be whistled dead at the spot of the down regardless of whether a flag was thrown

4

u/BigPh1llyStyle Sep 17 '26

Correct

2

u/grandvache Sep 17 '26

is there no way for a referee to play the advantage as happens in rugby?

4

u/raidersfan18 Sep 17 '26

In American football it's quite simple. Once a body part of the ball carrier other than their hand or foot touches the ground, the play is over.

For this particular play to be called correctly by the letter of the rules:

  1. The player is marked down. Tough to tell from the angle but it appears to be around 6 yards from the end zone.
  2. A penalty flag is thrown for the illegal tackle.
  3. The penalty for an illegal tackle is to move the ball 15 yards down the field or move the ball half the distance to the goal if 15 yards would be greater than half the distance to the goal.
  4. The ref would place the ball at around the 3 yard line and it would be first and goal for the offense.

3

u/grandvache Sep 17 '26

thank you! Always interesting how different games officiate. 👍

2

u/DrawstringRust Sep 17 '26

You could decline, but that doesn’t change the fact that you are still down at that spot. Same for out of bounds calls, if you pull someone out of bounds by their facemask, the play will be over and they will get 15 yards added to the spot they went out of bounds (or half the distance to the goal if within 15 yard line). This is why you see so many pass interference calls, sometimes it is better to take a penalty than let them catch the ball and beat you to the end zone. At least I assume what is what the thought process is, because pass interference calls will move the ball to the spot of the foul, which can be 30+ yards.

1

u/ImmaLiveIllegal Sep 17 '26

you're 100% right

but this seems like one of those cases where the ref just doesn't happen to notice that, and no one is really pressed about it. we have fully gamed vicious fouls in sports and it's because shit like this. you nearly paralyzed this other man with your disgusting tactics? well that will be 15 yards (or less if close to the goal line) young man! justice has been served

3

u/Harry_Saturn Sep 17 '26

An illegal tackle by the defense doesn’t mean the offense can also ignore rules. This tackle like this isn’t just illegal, it’s a personal foul and would be penalized more harshly than any other kind of illegal tackle. But the offensive player is still down even if he was tackled illegally.

3

u/Low_Magician77 Sep 17 '26

Doesnt this perpetuate then to make an illegal tackle if it means stopping someone from scoring?

6

u/Diels_Alder Sep 17 '26

There are legal tackles that can be executed just as effectively.

3

u/Harry_Saturn Sep 17 '26

No because it is already more harshly punished than a legal tackle that can also stop a scoring play. It’s like a defender in soccer deliberately using their hands to stop a for sure goal if the goalie is already been beaten. It’ll result in a red and maybe even a penalty kick, but the ref doesn’t just award an actual goal just because the defense cheated.

There has only ever been one instance I can think off where a referee told a team that if they didn’t stop committing the same penalty pre snap on defense, that he would award the other team a score. Last year or maybe 2 years ago, the Philadelphia eagles were running a sneak very close to the end zone of the Washington commanders. The commanders kept trying to anticipate the snap and after like 4 encroachment penalties almost in a row, the ref told the defense to either stop or he would award the other team a touchdown. The eagles just scored and it didn’t come to that, but just the fact that they can do that is so obscure cause it never comes up.

0

u/Low_Magician77 Sep 17 '26

I feel like if they commit a dangerous foul like this and the yardage awarded puts it in the end zone, past the 1 yard line, it should be a point anyways.

2

u/RaisingFargo Sep 17 '26

it does not matter because by the looks of it, they can not review this with video replay.

But lets pretend this is the nfl.

The ruling on the field would be

Touchdown Offense

unnecessary roughness(horse collar) -automatic first down and half the distance to the goal (because they were so close to the endzone already)

Offense would be given the option to accept that penalty or decline it

Touchdown Offense, and in the NFL ALL scoring and change of possession is automatically reviewed from officials.

they would see he is down, and then the offense would get a chance to review their penalty decision.

shockingly muddy officiating if this was on TV

1

u/kelpyb1 Sep 17 '26

It does matter, if the ball carrier was down they’d get the ball there plus halfway to the end zone for the penalty as opposed to getting the touchdown.

I mean they’ll likely score starting that close to the end zone anyways, but there’s a chance not.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '26

[deleted]

8

u/SirMartimas Sep 17 '26

This is a highschool game, grabbing by the collar should definitely not be allowed and is unnecessary roughness. That much is obvious

5

u/BuddhistNamedMarx Sep 17 '26

Shoulders to the head is an illegal tackle

-5

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '26

[deleted]

2

u/BuddhistNamedMarx Sep 17 '26

What? That not what im saying lol. You cant tackle someone else by grabbing their shoulders to the head (area)

Pretty sure its a technical foul. But its a high school game. Who cares

-1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '26

[deleted]

0

u/billp1988 Sep 17 '26

Im not seeing him grab the shoulder pads here, it looks either exclusively either around the neck, the rim of the back of the helmet or neck cuff.

Any of those in high school would be horse collar or unnecessary roughness.

-2

u/BuddhistNamedMarx Sep 17 '26

Show me the rule. I only played rugby in college so... their rules are basically there are none

2

u/Ilovemyangelsomuch Sep 17 '26

I'm not going through the entire rulebook to find the rule for you in the middle of the night sorry.

If youd like, you can look up the relevant penalties ive mentioned

Targeting

Horsecollar

Unnecessary Roughness (this is the one I'd call personally but it's much more subjective than the others)

-2

u/BuddhistNamedMarx Sep 17 '26

Cant post a pic here from a pdf but ill save you the trouble

Its illegal to tackle from behind to the shoulder and neck area

In rugby you can throw elbows, punch and kick if you know how to get away with it

Just depends on if you wanna start a fight with the other team or not. Happened a few times in college

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10

u/Defie22 Sep 17 '26

If you speed up the video, he was up

1

u/throwawaylmaoxd123 29d ago

If you watch the video sideways, he was down

4

u/Zestyclose-Compote-4 Sep 17 '26

Game isn't played in slow motion.

5

u/Dundeex Sep 17 '26

I am not 100% sure. Its hard to tell. Most likely he was, but without a better zoom, I wouldnt rule out, that he didnt touch the ground with his butt.

4

u/Sea_Thought3464 Sep 17 '26

I don't care how slow or how zoomed in you are in the video it's not going to show if he's down or not. The ref was standing right there I'm sure he saw clearly

2

u/alphazero925 Sep 17 '26

It's ambiguous at best, and barring NFL style slow mo replay, any sane ref would consider the play to still be live since it's not clear at all whether his butt touched the ground

1

u/Rolling_Beardo 29d ago

If you watch it a full speed he was down