[EKUAlum05]

There is a catch 22 with all this, and that is Personal Fouls are judgement calls. Calls made on the fly, where sometimes one ref is all that sees the penalty or think they see the penalty.

So while I sympathize with your story, and totally agree that something needs to be done to protect football from dissipating over the next few decades, we have to keep in mind the consequences.

What if your son is playing in the regional finals and gets ejected on a questionable helmet to helmet call that could have gone either way and you lose that game, or better yet win that game and have to play in the SC without him? Now you have a son that worked all year to be a part of something special and he doesn't get to play in the biggest game of his life because a ref made an incorrect judgement call? I think you or any other parent would be on the other end of the argument.

To piggyback off this there is a reason the NCAA enforces an ejection for targeting, but not for helmet to helmet. Much like holding, helmet to helmet contacts are prevalent throughout the game.. just many go uncalled. Helmet to helmet happens all the time incidentally as the by product of violent collisions with a running back going full steam one way with his shoulders/head lowered and a defender going the other way looking to "get low". Where contact becomes a penalty involves exclusively with "intent".

Targeting is a no brainer because there is no denying intent versus incidental contact. There is still an aspect of judgement typically involved, but typically there is little doubt that there was either excessive roughness or unnecessary contact to base it off.

Imagine your son is a star Senior LB in the scenario HSFOOTBALL outlined and he is going up against a kid like Damien Harris who is big, strong, and runs like a freight train. Let's say it is the Regional-Finals and trailing 14-8 with 2:30 to go in the 4th Madison Southern is facing a 4th and 6. They give the ball to Harris on a stretch and he turns his shoulders and explodes up the field and your son is set to meet him at the sticks. Harris knows contact is coming so at the last second he decelerates and dips his shoulder to not only brace the impact, but hopefully catch a grazing blow he can spin off of and continue forward thanks to his speed

Your son flies into him and Harris goes straight down a yard shy of the marker. In the collision though it appeared as if Harris sustained a helmet to helmet blow. Not only is the drive extended, but now your son is ejected from the key juncture of the game and potentially the Semi's and Finals. His carer just ended on a sensational play where he did nothing wrong.

I like the idea of penalizing targeting (though HS refs are NOT the same quality as collegiate so even here there is a chance for a massive failure). I also like the idea at the HS level of extending targeting to also include excessively late hits.

The thing that is difficult in all this is the fact I would say a disproportionately high amount of HS concussions are the result of Special Teams plays. Crack back blocks on returns and players getting hurt busting a wedge have IMO by far the highest incident rate. Yet these are extremely difficult to police since they are part of the live game action.