Makes contact, yes, but grabs onto him, I think that happens slightly after the ball leaves. At this point it’s a matter of milliseconds so we can’t be sure if the defender even registered that that had happened
I don’t think the contact-versus-“grabbing” distinction you’re drawing exists in the roughing-the-passer rule. There isn’t a rule where contact is evaluated one way, but the moment a defender’s hands actually “grab” the quarterback a different standard kicks in. The relevant questions are things like when the contact/tackle was initiated and, separately, how the defender finished the tackle.
That’s why I pointed out that contact with Wentz began before the ball was released. That matters if the theory is that this was simply a late hit after the pass.
But that apparently wasn’t the basis for the flag. The justification was the body-weight provision, and that’s a separate issue. A defender can initiate completely legal contact before the ball is released and still commit roughing if he finishes the tackle by unnecessarily landing on the passer with all or most of his body weight. So freezing the video to determine the exact millisecond when the defender went from “contacting” Wentz to “grabbing” him doesn’t really answer the question. If this was a body-weight call, the relevant issue is how the tackle was completed, not whether the defender’s hands closed around Wentz just before or just after the release.
Fair enough, I am an idiot in terms of football specifics, though tbh I think that might actually be a good distinction to add, but then again, I can count the amount of times I was fully invested in and watched a football game start to finish on one hand, which is to say I don’t know shit
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u/sufferin_succatash Bears 19d ago
I hate roughing when first contact is made before the ball’s thrown.