Forward Progress Myth revisited

[deeeznutz]

I have thought all year that whistles were slow and am surprised that so few injuries seem to occur because of delayed whistle.
Long ago it was illegal to aid the the forward motion of a runner by pushing the pile or runner. From a safety standpoint it seems that was a good rule.

One injury directly related to a late whistle: DeAndre Smelter. He knew he had gone down so he stopped fighting. The thUGA d-bag, hearing no whistle, proceeded to take him down again tearing his ACL in the process. It still pisses me off that his Tech career ended right there. We would have taken Rapeis and the boys down with Smelter on the field!

 

[GTJackets]

If forward progress was not stopped, by definition they were moving forward. If they were moving forward, there was no way they did not cross the line, because there was no room left.

Basically, of all the options the refs had, they picked the most nonsensical, and obviously impossible one. That JT was moving forward, yet did not enter the EZ.

This isn't necessarily true. It wasn't the case on the play you're talking about, but players often run backwards without their forward progress being stopped. But I agree that one of two things happened on this play. Either JT broke the goal line for a TD or his forward progress was stopped. He wasn't trying to escape and bounce it around the end at the point the ball was taken. He was on his way to the ground.