Daniel Roberts

Sports Media Pop Culture

October 20, 2017

Hitting a defenseless receiver or targeting in football is a major topic of debate within the

sport and within the media. There is so much controversy over what constitutes a targeting call.

The National Football League defines a defenseless receiver as “A receiver attempting to catch a

pass who has not had time to clearly become a runner. If the player is capable of avoiding or

warding off the impending contact of an opponent, he is no longer a defenseless player.” This

definition leaves a lot of the calls to the opinion of the referee which seems to be too opinionated

of a call.

Football is the definition of a contact strength power sport. In every play, one player on

either the offense or defense is trying to overpower another player through physical contact. For

example, an offensive lineman trying to overpower a defensive lineman by bringing a relentless

attempt to block him. In the specific instances that constitute a targeting call the receiver comes

into the zone of a defensive player and attempts to make a catch and the defensive player makes

a play to break up this pass but while making the defensive play the defensive player makes

contact to the head or shoulders of the receiver. This draws the penalty and gives the offense

fifteen yards and an automatic first down. This is a huge momentum shift within the game. This

is a game changing penalty and could easily be the difference between a victory and a loss. Also

according to the NCAA ‘if a player is penalized with targeting the player is then disqualified

from the game.” The rule was put in place to protect players but it has begun to change the face

of the game and how defense is played. From the very beginning of my football playing career, I

was always taught to protect my zone and if someone comes into my zone, I cover them and
eventually hit them if the ball comes near them and the goal is to strike them hard enough for

them to fear coming into your zone but with this rule effect it changes the way linebackers and

safeties enforce their coverages. The safety must try to make a split second change in direction to

defend the pass but must also be aware of where the player is going as well as where their body

is going to make contact so that they are not penalized. This seems like an almost ridiculous task.

This is leading to the defensive players to aim lower to avoid the penalty but it is leading to

increased lower extremity injuries. The defensive player makes contact in the front or side of the

receiver’s knee causing cruciate ligament tears as well as fractures. So the targeting rule is

protecting a player from possible concussions but also leading to higher levels of lower extremity

injuries.

Players and coaches are continuing to disagree with the rule. For example, a Florida

University player named Brian Poole was flagged and ejected from a game against Tennessee

and his coach responded to this ejection by saying "I don't have any problem with the call. I've

got a problem with the rule," Muschamp said. "Brian Poole was not trying to flagrantly hurt

anyone. It's a bang-bang play. He's trying to go up, the ball's high, he's going in high. It's a bang-

bang play." This is a perfect example of how a coach in the NCAA feels about the targeting or

defenseless receiver. The player made a play on the ball because of where it was placed and was

disqualified from participation because of it. Even though a hit may be an accident with no

malicious intent the player is penalized anyway. Dave Coleman Pac-12 director of officials, said

“I see it is changing behavior ... players are being taught and coached to understand that they can

make a play without using their head.” This is an exact point to make on this. A player could

make what is thought of as a perfect tackle on an opponent but because they cannot predict what
opposing player is going to do they must instead hit the player in the knees possibly causing a

lower extremity injury to the opposing player so that they do not cause harm to their team’s

ability for success. To further this point coach Mora of the NCAA spoke about a play that

Adarius Pickett made on an opposing player that was ruled as targeting, ““He told me the other

day, he said, ‘If I was to put together a clinic tape on how to tackle, Adarius Pickett’s would be

one of the ones I showed. It was a perfect tackle,’ ” the younger Mora said of his father, a former

NFL coach. “And it was a perfect tackle.” This continues to show that a person is unable to

somehow predict the action of a player when making a catch and how this should b furthered

reviewed before taking away crucial playing time. Coach Mora continued to say “You [only] get

so many opportunities to play the game of football,” Pickett said, “and getting kicked out of the

game, especially like that, early, that hurts.” This is unfair to take away a player’s ability to play

in an instant decision. That player has spent years and years to get to the point that they are at

and in an instant the player can lose one of the crucial games. The player begins the week with

film breakdown and practice. Then continues practicing and reviewing film to be able to master

the opponent’s playbook in only a week yet then in one play all of this work can just be all for

nothing? This seems like a flaw in the system in my opinion. This ejection and penalty can also

be fueled by the media.

The media then begins to portray the person who hit this receiver as some sort of monster

or some sort of horrible person who was genuinely trying to hurt someone when in reality he

may be just trying to make a play on the ball. The announcers will begin this call on the

defensive player but will somehow continue to show a replay of the multiples time. On page 56

of sports, media, and society it explains that a zoom in on the camera during live sports play is to

show focus and observation. That is exactly what happens during the review of these plays. As
well as on page 57 of sports, media, and society it begins to go into detail of the role that voice

has on live sports. It mentions “the voice of the commentator in sports television has this effect-if

your attention wanders, a yell from the commentator immediately refocuses your gaze. This is

usually what happens when a targeting play occurs. The player hits another player and the

commentator sees the flag and immediately gasps and begins this rant about how the player

should know better and somehow understand that in a split second decision they are not

supposed to do such a thing. Then after the play is over and even the game is over it is replayed

again and again by the media to make judgments of whether there was a malicious intent or not.

This is mentioned in Sports, Media, and Society on page 76 when exaplining how the media will

initially unpack a story and begin to look at the content of a story and then decided their stance

on the story. In this reference the people covering the content post game, typically, make the

person out to be just a demon of a person because he hit them illegally. I do understand that these

malicious hits do happen but in all reference, most of these hits are a split second decision by a

safety or linebacker trying to make a play to help his team succeed.

I believe that the league needs to tighten up rules within the sport to be able to

successfully protect players while also protecting the ability to play the game. Concussions are

one of the terrible things that can happen in the game of football and they are something that

should try to be prevented as best as possible but at the same time the quality of play should not

be effected and a rule should not lead to more season and even career endings plays like in the

case of the targeting rule. The NCAA and the NFL need to be able to actually convene together

and find the most efficient way to improve player safety but also keeping quality of play high as

well. The solution I offer is reviewing each one of these targeting calls because of the way that

the game is changed by each one that is called. As well as reviewing there needs to be a tighter
definition and more sound definition of what exactly targeting is and is constituted to be.

Overall, I believe that there needs to be change in what targeting is within the sport of

football. Too many great players are being torn apart by media sources for making great plays to

defend a pass. The media needs to understand that each one of these plays are made in under a

second and not to extremely ostracize an athlete for trying to help his team better succeed. This is

true to say though that players should not be able to make any sort of malicious and dirty hits

against an opposing player but if a player is not trying to malicious hit someone the player

should not be ejected from the game. The NFL and NCAA need to work together to be able to

optimally come to a solution to be able to keep players safe but make a disadvantage for the

defense on the field.

 Bibliography:

Bolch, Ben. "The problem with college football's targeting rule, according to UCLA's Jim Mora
and other coaches and players." Los Angeles Times, Oct. 2017, www.latimes.com/sports/nba/la-
sp-college-football-targeting-20171006-story.html. Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.

NFL Rule Book , National Football League, https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/nfl-video-

rulebook/defenseless-player/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.

Rapport, Daniel. "Watch: Northwestern's Jared McGee was Ejected on This Controversial
Targeting Call." Sports Illustrated, 9 Sept. 2017, https://www.si.com/college-
football/2017/09/09/northwestern-duke-jared-mcgee-ejected-targeting. Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.

Redding, Roger. You are here HomeAboutResourcesMedia CenterNews A new process

implemented for targeting fouls review, www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/new-
process-implemented-targeting-fouls-review. Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.

Aschoff, Edward. "Players aware of penalty, ejection." ESPN, Oct. 2013,

www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/9754906/targeting-rule-continues-frustrate-coaches-
players-college-football. Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.

Kennedy, Eileen, and Laura Hills. Sport, Media, and Society. New York City, Berg, 2009.

Lucas, Mike. "Lucas at Large: Debate about targeting hits home for Badgers." Univeristy of
Wisconsin, Oct. 2017, www.uwbadgers.com/news/2017/10/18/varsity-magazine-lucas-at-large-
debate-about-targeting-hits-home-for-badgers.aspx. Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.

"Around college football: Big increase in targeting penalties is a cause for concern." Los Angeles
Times, www.latimes.com/sports/more/la-sp-college-football-notes-20170920-story.html.
Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.