I’m a fan. I spent a little time on the sidelines during college and still love spending my saturdays (and some sundays) soaking up some football. The refs of the Wash/BYU game might have officially sucked the fun out of the game. They will make every single player from here on out tip-toe after doing anything game altering or producing an exciting finish. Good job guys. Way to go.
This is the moment. This was the culmination of a length of the field, end of the game drive that every kid that plays QB dreams of (not me, I was a punk kicker). Everyone is going nuts. Time is ticking away. Crowd is starting to see something special is going to happen to the home team. For those of you that missed it, Jake Locker of Washington did his best Shane Falco (Keanu in The Replacements) impersonation, fended off a couple would-be tacklers and scored. The place erupts. Emotions of 20-year olds spill over - offense has a meeting in the endzone! This is the reason I watch college football. That was f-cking exciting!
Wrong. Flag on the play. Not holding or illegal shift or too many men on the field. But excessive celebration. Becasue he threw the ball in the air. Not chucked it like a pass into the upper deck. But an over-the-shoulder flip while his teammates are coming toward him. 15-yards. SERIOUSLY?! He didn’t pull out a sharpie and sign it. He didn’t drop down to the ground and bust out the worm. They didn’t break out into a dance number from Rent. The ref says he had to call it. Its in the rules. Rule 9, Section 2, Article 1 of the rule book - Section C states that “throwing the ball high into the air” is an unsportsmanlike act. Throwing. Not flipping. Not tossing. It didn’t delay the game. Did these guys dressed in zebra camouflage ever play the game in their life? Ever see the emotion of a 20-year old after he accomplished something special and exciting? There needs to be a little flexibility here. Maybe some interpretation. Do you think the BYU coach would have said that the refs should have called it if they didn’t?
Now, in truth, BYU was the better team that day. Washington should have never allowed BYU to block the 35-yard PAT (thanks to the 15-yard penalty). But, you just hate to see it end that way. I hate to see refs determine the result of a game this way. It should have gone into OT. Would have been exciting for the players and the fans. I feel bad for Locker. Whether or not it should have been called, it falls squarely on his shoulders.
I really hope the rules committee takes a closer look at this one. I know the intention of the rule is good, but it does not need to be black and white. There is a difference between blatant in-your-face celebration and “man, that was f-cking awesome”.
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