The Lions' Pride

thats exactly what I'm talking about. If you watch that play, Lehman lowers his upper body at the last minute to brace for impact...at that point Thomas was already engaged in a position (leading with his shoulder) to hit the much larger Lehman around the waist...but Lehman comes down to him in a way which is a natural reaction for someone bracing for impact. This type of ejection will be so widespread and its a shame because it can really alter the outcome of games. I'm even against a penalty on that specific play... but I can live with a 15 yard penalty...but an ejection!

When it comes down to it, not every "illegal hit" will warrant an ejection. This means that either there will be a lot of unnecessary ejections, or officials will be a little more hesitant to call an illegal hit. Either way, I don't see this turning out well. I can't help but think of the hit Taylor Mays had on Norwood in the '09 Rose Bowl; I think the officials should be more apt to eject players with hits like that, rather than an automatic ejection with any "illegal hit".

There is a 100% guarantee we will have a player ejected for this in a big game at a critical point in the game this season.

After the horrendous calls we had against us this past year, including replays, there is zero doubt in my mind this will be called against us and we'll have one of our best players ejected.

This is a terrible, terrible idea to put a judgment call like this in the hands of the refs. It will directly effect the result of some games and the players on the field negatively.

If you don't want kids getting hurt, take off the face masks or put flags on everyone.

This crap won't help the game or prevent injuries at all.

This has the potential to be a horrible rule--especially the 2nd half ejection leading to missing the first half of the next game. Hopefully the video review will eliminate the obvious bad calls, though. Also, hopefully a defender hitting an offensive player who ducks will be an exception.

The intent is good, but the only way to eliminate head-to-head hits is to get rid of the helmets.

Then every hit by donnie Johnson would have been an ejection because opposing players said it should be illegal with the force he had when he squared up. I remember reading an article of an MSU player asking him about the worst part of playing against Lee, Connor, and Pos. His response was that the worst part of playing that trio was that Donnie Johnson was waiting behind them in case you got by. This was the picture attached to that article.

Might as well add MROB.

LOL....probably true....not saying I'd want that to happen, just that a player would be less likely to lower or lead with his head if he didn't have a helmet on.

A head-to-head hit is a tough problem to solve, as it is tough to judge intent. As such, this new rule is likely to be overly harsh and unfair. Sometimes these hits just happen, and sometimes it is caused by the offensive player lowering their head. So, I don't know how you put it all on the defense.

I could see this rule totally backfiring, as now offensive players might be inclined to lower their head to get defenders tossed.

Especially Big Ten refs. Not a big fan of conspiracy theories, but the Big refs just plain suck for any team. There is no public accountability.

I support the ejection rule for the idiots out there still launching themselves head first at the ball carrier's head in a blatant disregard for the rules. The issue is that the these plays happen so fast in real time that there is no hope for the officials to enforce it in a fair manner.

It also brings the issue of the offensive player's reaction and positioning into the discussion. I was watching the flyers/saber's game last night and one of the flyers lined up a saber on the boards for a legal hit but right as he was about to make contact the saber turned his back to the flyer to protect the puck and ended up going face first into the boards and getting hurt. I think the refs made the move with a non-call, but it easily could have gone the other way depending on the perspective of the ref or even their subjective opinion. I'm not suggesting that offensive players will start putting their heads directly in the path of a defenders helmet, but like others have suggested, players brace for impact and generally lower their head. heads are going to collide and the refs are going have to start judging intent, which is kind of BS when the interpretation results in a 4-quarter ban....