Seahawks Insider
Seahawks Insider
where there is no offseason

Eric D. Williams took over the Seahawks beat and Seahawks Insider blog in December. Williams has covered the Seahawks, Sonics and high school sports for The News Tribune since joining the paper in 2006. Eric lives in Tacoma with his wife and two children.

Tacoma News Tribune columnist Dave Boling also contributes to the Seahawks Insider blog.

Blogroll
Category
Calendar
July 2009
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
      1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31  
Archives
Search this Blog:
XML Feeds
What is RSS?
Misc
Who's Online?
  • benramm Email
  • jmill3 Email
  • MrSinister Email
  • envyoushawk Email
  • Seattle83 Email
  • Larry LaRue Email
  • wahosi2001 Email
  • gregoryrobinson Email
  • Guest Users: 674
Seahawks Insider
Friday, August 1st, 2008
Rules changes and Friday afternoon session
Posted by Frank Hughes @ 03:09:36 pm

We met with the officials at 1:30, and they went over some of the rules changes for the upcoming season. The most prominent is the force-out rule, and if a player does not get his feet down and is forced out of bounds it is now an incomplete pass. The caveat to that is if he is clearly going to come down but a player carries him out. The force-out happens far less often than you would guess, the referee who sat with us, Pete Morelli, saying about 14 times last season.

Other rules changes:

* There are no 5-yard facemasks any more. Only 15-yard intentional facemask penalties.

* A direct snap from center to QB that is not touched is now a live ball. It used to be dead if it was not touched.

* All muffed handoffs are now live balls.

* An offensive player (Marion Barber) can no longer grab a defensive player's facemask or it is a 15-yard penalty.

[More:]

* Defensive players can now wear speakers in their helmets. Apparently, Lofa Tatupu does not want to be the player to wear the speaker, and Brian Russell does not either, so it sounds like Deon Grant may be that player. We caught him for a few minutes after practice but he said he didn't know anything about it. He doesn't know if it would help or hurt, he doesn't know who he would be speaking with and he doesn't know what information would be coming across. One problem, though, is that Qwest gets so loud when the Hawks are on defense that he may not be able to hear it anyway.

As for the afternoon practice, it was a special teams session, which led to discussions about Rock Em Sock Em Robots, Operation, Stratomatic football and Hungry Hungry Hippos. If you don't know what those are, you are either very young or very old.

Bruce DeHaven had the fellas working on punt coverage, punt returns as well as doing a drill practicing blocking punts. He got on Justin Forsett once for not getting away from a ball on a punt return. Forsett, Obomanu and Burleson were back returning. Courtney Taylor was on a side field working out and my guess it that he is back soon after tomorrow's scrimmage.

By the way, Bob LaMonte, who represents both Mike Holmgren and Jim Mora, attended the practice.

Categories: Officiating, Training Camp, Notes from practice • 18 comments

COMMENTS:

MitzFan @ 15:32 - Friday, August 1st, 2008 Email
Thanks Frank.

Clarification please: what used to be a 5-yard facemask penalty - is that now a 15 yard penalty or no penalty at all?
uk_Hawk @ 15:36 - Friday, August 1st, 2008 Email

So if anyone goes anywhere near a face mask it's 15 yards? That sounds like it could be pretty harsh (and controversial) in some circumstances.


chuck_easton @ 16:05 - Friday, August 1st, 2008 Email
The league is doing away with the inadvertant 5-yard face mask penalty. So if a player accidently grabs the mask, but doesn't twist (the old 5 yard variety) it is no longer a penalty.

Only the old 15 yard facemask where the player grabs the mask and uses it to stop the forward progress will now be called.
Dukeshire @ 16:10 - Friday, August 1st, 2008 Email
I don't think that's right. All facemask infractions are now 15 yards. Incidental no longer exists but it is still a penalty, now 15 yards. An offensive player can still stiffarm (as an example) a defender in the facemask with no penalty, as long as he does not grab it.
Frank Hughes @ 16:20 - Friday, August 1st, 2008 Email
Sorry for the confusion folks, Chuck-Easton is actually correct. If there is an inadvertent facemask where there is no twisting, it is no penalty at all (the 5-yard facemask is eliminated altogether). If there is any maliciousness to it, it is 15 yards.
Dukeshire @ 16:21 - Friday, August 1st, 2008 Email
Rather inadvertant.
chuck_easton @ 16:22 - Friday, August 1st, 2008 Email
Dukeshire,

There is confusion on the facemask penalty so I went around to alot of the team sights to see what other teams reporters were saying.

The concensus is that if a player grabs a facemask and holds on (doesn't let go right away) or twists then it's the 15 yard penalty.

You no longer have the penalty if a player grabs the mask but doesn't hold on. I can't wait to see how the referees figure out the exact formula for what constitutes 'holding on'.

Dukeshire @ 16:23 - Friday, August 1st, 2008 Email
Stand corrected, thanks for the clarification.
NickLicatasucks @ 17:07 - Friday, August 1st, 2008 Email
So if the receiver is "clearing coming down in-bounds" but is "carried out" it is a caveat? Which means that they can rule that a catch? So if Larry Fitzgerald is clearly coming down in bounds with the ball, and Kelly Jennings catches him and carries him to the sideline, then they may be able to still rule it a catch?

Imagine that- Jennings carrying out Fitz? I've got to think that this clearly helps a corner like Trufant who has the strength to force guys out... and hurts a smaller DB who may not have said strength or size.
rynehawk @ 17:18 - Friday, August 1st, 2008 Email
* An offensive player (Marion Barber) can no longer grab a defensive player's facemask or it is a 15-yard penalty.


I say it's about time. I never understood why a running back or receiver could grab a defensive player's facemask and push them away and not get flagged for a facemask. Never made any sense.
klm008 @ 22:06 - Friday, August 1st, 2008 Email
CBs playing man could use speakers. Watch the receiver all the way, the coach tells you when the ball is thrown your way.
klm008 @ 22:09 - Friday, August 1st, 2008 Email
Instead of carrying the receiver out of bounds the DBs are gonna hammer them outa bounds. When Deion's playin DAL, look out for the Hammer.
Regis @ 01:26 - Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 Email
Hamlin will have to be in the right place...and that don't always happen ;)

I believe the defensive headset will be cut off at some specific point during the play-clock winding down, similar to the offense's, in which case, you won't be able to give your D a play-by-play.

Nice to see they took away the judgment call on force-outs, but disappointed to see that they basically put it in on "inadvertent facemask" calls.
nighthawk2 @ 09:24 - Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 Email
Doesn't sound like the force-out is any change at all. That "caveat" was always there. It was just up to some goofy ref to decide on his own if they guy would have come down or not inbounds. I don't see any change. After Phil Luckett mistaking a white helmet for a football, and Bill Leavy's crew calling Hasselbeck for throwing an illegal block, on a tackle after an INT, I'm not impressed with referee's judgment. If they really want to make a rule change along those lines, they should make it so a receiver needs only one foot in bounds to be a legal catch, like college football and the CFL has. I thought that was the rule last time Vinnie T played Seattle and they gave Meshawn Johnson a TD. He only had one foot in. Nice job on that one too, ref.
mdmiller99 @ 09:33 - Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 Email
Nighthawk2:

You sir are a man carrying a serious grudge.

Vaild points...but grudge city!

lol
Regis @ 06:49 - Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 Email
I remember those too. I also recall watching Amani Toomer closely that year, and the refs were giving him questionable receptions all season long.

And let's not forget the ref tripping Engram on what would have been a TD catch in St Louis in 2003.

Then, of course, there was the disastrous catch-up-fest the refs pulled in Baltimore the week before that. Need the clock stopped? Sure thing. Where should we spot to give the Ravens a first down? Oh, another 2 feet this way? OK.
charliesmith87 @ 09:26 - Monday, August 4th, 2008 Email
KLM- I beleive the speakers would be inactive during the plays. They would only be active until the play clock get down to a certain point.
HideoSatow @ 15:57 - Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 Email
Hey Nighthawk you forgot about the Shockey TD where he got blasted before he really touched down in the endzone on the 3 missed FG game :p

Comments are not allowed from anonymous visitors. Please login or register to comment.