Why I believe Shazier wasn't flagged

[GMDino]

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/nfl/bengals/2016/01/15/cincinnati-bengals-pittsburgh-steelers-playoff-fines/78846208/

Quote:The play seemed to be in violation of the rule regarding leading with the crown of the helmet.

ARTICLE 8. INITIATING CONTACT WITH THE CROWN OF THE HELMET. It is a foul if a runner or tackler initiates forcible contact by delivering a blow with the top/crown of his helmet against an opponent when both players are clearly outside the tackle box (an area extending from tackle to tackle and from three yards beyond the line of scrimmage to the offensive team’s end line). Incidental contact by the helmet of a runner or tackler against an opponent shall not be a foul.

In his weekly video review of certain plays, NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said several rules were at play, including being a defenseless receiver and becoming a runner. Blandino said "he is not a defenseless receiver at the time of contact." This was ruled on the field and Blandino affirmed this.

Blandino then broke down three elements of consideration within Article 8 and why the Shazier hit is considered a legal play.


“But there’s three elements to that rule. You have to line up your opponent, you have to lower your head, and you have to make forcible contact with the very top of the helmet. The key issue here is the line up. And when we’re talking about angles, and the players are moving at different angles, where you have Bernard is moving in this direction, Shazier is moving in this direction, then we don’t have the line up.

"You’re really dealing with the players moving in the same direction towards each other when this rule would apply. The theory being, when players are moving at angles, they don’t have as much opportunity to avoid that contact. That’s where the rule does not apply.

"You watch it here, we’re moving at angle, not a foul."


Blandino continued: "We certainly are concerned with players lowering their head. We don’t want players to lower their head to initiate contact. That’s why this rule was in place, to coach that, and to get that out of the game. And the players have done a great job and the players have done a great job. This crown of the helmet rule has not been called very often. We haven’t had a lot of fines in this area because we’re not seeing it very often. But we have to continue to look at this technique and make sure that where we can we eliminate it from the game and we prohibit players and deter players from dropping and using the crown of the helmet.”

He did say that this rule, along with all others, is reviewed every offseason and added that will continue to be a discussion topic.

the original link is over in JN so y'all can jizz all over yourselves complain that Blandino is WRONG....then go say how he said the Steelers TD was not a TD and he is RIGHT.