NCAA Football: The Helmet Rule’s Unintentional Consequences

The NCAA’s recently passed ‘helmet rule’ has already been spotlighted in the opening week of the 2012 football season. Alabama fans (and Clemson fans) yelled from the stands and from their sofas at what appeared to be attempts by opponents to use the new rule to their advantage.

The NCAA website explains the change as such:

"If a player loses his helmet (other than as the result of a foul by the opponent, such as a facemask), it will be treated like an injury. The player must leave the game and is not allowed to participate for the next play."

The intention of the helmet rule is good — protecting players from head injuries. With every good intention, it seems, there is an unintended consequence. Several times during first week games, TV cameras caught players on the sidelines explaining that opponents were yanking their helmets off while they were under the pile. The danger in this scenario is that removing an opponent’s head gear will become an unspoken game strategy.

The new helmet rule means a player must leave the field so that it doesn’t become a strategy for delay. It could be argued, however, that intentionally removing another player’s helmet to cause a personnel change should be a penalty and is a strategy in and of itself. The problem is, intent is a tough thing to legislate, and enforcement would be tough.

The NCAA should be applauded for their focus on player safety, but the helmet rule needs a bit of attention so that it doesn’t become a detriment and create the very injuries it was intended to prevent. Here’s some side effects to the helmet rule:

Safety: If players are intentionally yanking on helmets, players on the bottom of the pile are actually at risk of injury because of this new rule.

Momentum: The new rule will force backups into the rotation, which is good, but it can cause a momentum shift as play calls change. The danger here is that this becomes strategy and players on offense and defense could exploit weaknesses as backups are forced into action on critical drives.

Time: If a player loses a helmet at the end of a game, the defense can opt to run 10 seconds off the clock. Frankly, this is a dumb twist that has nothing to do with safety. Anyone can see how this could be part of a strategy by defenses to kill a two-minute drill. After all, the referees are not throwing flags on defenders who intentionally rip helmets off of players in a block or tackle.

It is only a matter of time before someone loses a big game because of this unintended consequence to a safety rule. Here’s a simple proposal: If the same player loses a helmet twice in the same game, the referee should inspect the helmet and see that it fits and is strapped on properly. The referees should also be aware that players are intentionally yanking helmets off of opponents and they should throw a flag.

Rest assured that this weekend, even more scrutiny will be placed on this new rule, as well as its unintended consequences.

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