Why high school football isn't likely to adopt NFL’s new roughing the passer rules

When he opened the link that one of his friends emailed this week, Tommy Whittle couldn’t help but chuckle.

A Green Bay Packers fan created a satirical video to poke fun at the NFL’s apparent attempt to legislate hitting the quarterback out of the sport. The video demonstrated how to properly sack an NFL quarterback by showing the fan gently laying his girlfriend on the grass, placing a pillow beneath her head and kissing her on the forehead.

“Wasn’t that funny?” asked Whittle, associate director of the Georgia High School Association. “I thought that was pretty clever.”

High school football typically borrows anything from creative end-zone celebrations, to trendy jersey designs, to innovative formations from the NFL, but at least one element of the sport is unlikely to trickle down from the professional level. So far there’s scant interest in adopting the NFL’s unpopular new emphasis on penalizing defenders for driving quarterbacks into the turf or landing atop them with most of their body weight.

No serious discussions have taken place about adjusting high school football’s roughing the passer rule to mimic the NFL’s new version, four members of the National Federation of State High School Associations football rules committee told Yahoo Sports this week. Those committee members said right now they would oppose any such proposal given the frustration the NFL rule change has spawned so far.

Why high school football won’t follow NFL

There have been 34 roughing the passer calls in the first three weeks of the new NFL season, more than twice as many as there were at the same juncture the previous year. Defensive players have complained they can’t hit a quarterback without being flagged, referees appear confused at how to enforce the new rule and fans are livid when a game turns on a dubious call.

“The NFL thinks their defensive players can adjust to this, but it might be more difficult than they expected,” said Beau Rugg, Ohio’s senior director of officiating and sport Management and the state’s lone NFHS rules committee representative.

“There have been some calls where players are trying not to do anything extra, and they’re still getting called for roughing the passer. It’s never good for the game when players don’t know what they can and can’t do. The good news is the NFL does more research than anybody and eventually they’ll probably get it right. But right now, it’s kind of a cluster.”

High school administrators believe adopting the NFL’s approach to roughing the passer would generate more problems at their level than it has in the pros.

If nimble, skilled NFL linebackers and defensive linemen are having a hard time figuring out how to legally hit a quarterback, rules committee members fear the adjustment will be even tougher for their less athletic high school counterparts. They’re also skeptical high school referees can properly identify violations of the new bodyweight emphasis if full-time and fully trained NFL officials are struggling to make those judgment calls.

“The officials that we get to work Friday night’s game, they’re guys who love the game, but they’re not professional officials,” said Mike Whaley, associate director of the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association and the state’s NFHS rules committee representative. “If the rules start to escalate to the point where it becomes too intricate or complex for our guys to officiate, some of them would probably just step back. We have a shortage of officials already, and we can’t be doing that.”

Dividing line for QBs: Punishment vs. clean, hard hits

Player safety is a top priority across all levels of football these days with participation levels gradually declining, but high school football administrators point out that the NFL has extra incentive to focus on keeping its quarterbacks healthy in particular.

Top NFL quarterbacks sell tickets, drive ratings and command massive salaries, so the league has financial reason to manipulate its rulebook to safeguard its most marketable assets. High school football’s popularity isn’t so quarterback-driven, so administrators have no motivation to tilt the rules in one position’s favor at the expense of the sport.

“The NFL has a monetary view toward the importance of their quarterbacks,” said Steve Coover, a longtime high school referee now serving rules director for the California Interscholastic Federation. “At the high school level, the focus isn’t the same.”

In the 49 states that follow NFHS rules, roughing the passer is a fairly simple call for high school referees to make. Defenders risk a 15-yard penalty if they deliver an avoidable hit too long after a quarterback has released a pass, if they take aim at a quarterback’s head or neck area, or if they initiate contact with the crown of their helmets.

By contrast, college football and the NFL further limit what pass rushers are allowed to do in order to offer quarterbacks extra protection. Defenders rushing unabated to the quarterback cannot forcibly hit him at or below the knee area when he’s inside the pocket, a rule designed to prevent knee and ankle injuries.

Both college football and the NFL now prohibit players from forcibly driving quarterbacks to the ground and landing on them, but the difference is how those rules are enforced. Whereas NFL defenders are now being held responsible for avoiding landing on the quarterback when taking him to the ground, college referees appear to receive more latitude to judge whether a player is trying to pile drive the passer or merely tackle him to the ground.

“The action that we want to prevent is when the guy makes contact with a quarterback, follows through and punishes the player into the turf,” said Steve Shaw, the Southeastern Conference’s head of officiating and the NCAA’s secretary rules editor. “I want the referee to make the determination: is he punishing him or is it just a good, strong hit? That’s really our dividing line.”

Does anyone like these NFL rules?

The subtle difference between how the rules are enforced has helped college football avoid the deluge of early season roughing the passer penalties that have plagued the NFL. Two especially controversial calls on Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews have drawn the most attention, the first a Week 2 hit on Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins and the second a Week 3 hit on Washington’s Alex Smith.

Matthews wondered after the second such penalty this past Sunday if the league is “getting soft.” Packers coach Mike McCarthy told reporters he thought Matthews “did exactly what he’s supposed to do.” Even Smith sympathized with Matthews, admitting to reporters Sunday, “I’m glad I don’t play defense.”

Since pass rushers cannot hit a quarterback high, low or in the midsection if it results in their bodyweight landing on the passer, retired former Packers linebacker Bryce Paup wonders what defensive players are supposed to do in today’s NFL.

“Right now, it seems like if you even touch a quarterback, you’re flagged,” said Paup, who recorded 75 sacks in his career. “I get that the quarterback is valuable and you can’t have whatever percent of your [salary] cap sitting on the bench hurt, but you’ve still got to play the game. If no one enjoys your game anymore, it doesn’t matter how much you protect your quarterback. You’re not going to have any revenue eventually. You’re cutting your nose off to spite your face.”

If high school and college football continue to enforce roughing the passer differently than the NFL, that could make it tougher for the league to stick with its new approach.

One reason the NFL has been successful in limiting targeting, spearing and other headhunting hits is that coaches on football’s lower levels have emphasized proper tackling techniques. The trickle-up effect won’t occur with hits to the quarterback if pass rushers grow up being allowed to tackle a passer like any other player.

Whittle sympathizes with pass rushers trying to adjust to the NFL’s new emphasis, but he sees no reason for high school football to make a change just to mirror the professional level.

“To be honest, I don’t even know if the NFL is going to have this in place much longer or not given the reaction,” Whittle said. “I’m old-school. I think they went maybe a little too far.”

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Jeff Eisenberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at jeisenb@oath.com or follow him on Twitter!

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