BIG news from the NFL: Excerpt from PFT: Players on the Packers have been talking about hitting 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh is not happy about that. But the NFL has some bad news for Harbaugh: Taking hits comes with the territory of being a read-option quarterback. In an officiating video distributed to the media, NFL Vice President of Officiating Dean Blandino says that read-option quarterbacks can be hit like runners, even if they don’t have the ball. If a quarterback who handed off or pitched the ball is still carrying out a fake in a running posture, he can be tackled the same way he would be if he still had the ball. “He is still treated as a runner until he is clearly out of the play,” Blandino said. “The quarterback makes the pitch, he’s still a runner — he can be hit like a runner until he’s clearly out of the play.” Blandino noted that if the offense is running a play designed to keep the defense guessing about who’s getting the ball, it’s only fair for the defense to be allowed to tackle both players.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 23:12:05 +0000