With less than 3 1/2 minutes left in the 4th quarter and Ohio up on UMass by 10 a UMass player scores a touchdown by doing a front flip into the end zone. A flag is thrown for unsportsman like conduct/excessive celebration and the call is reviewed in the booth. The booth confirms the ruling on the field that the flip was a foul,  but they say the penalty occurred after the play was dead (ball crossed the plane of the end zone)

  www.youtube.com/watch

In this recap video you can see the flip at 2:31. Clearly the runner begins his leap around the 4 yard line and as the ball breaks the plane his ankles are above his shoulders. How can that be ruled a penalty, but not be ruled a penalty until after the ball breaks the plane?

Am I understanding this rule right, should that not have been called back?

OK, but it's a rule and everyone on both teams (except this clown) knows that.  I think I could live with the "shame" of winning on a call I didnt agree with.   Ask Pete Carroll how he deals with it.

I agree with  you - he started the somersault when he left the ground at the 4 yard line. It wasn't something he started after the ball crossed the plane. The call was probably wrong, but at this  point its water under the bridge.


The thing is, that's not how it works. You can't leave the ground, to dive, and suddenly, in mid-air, change your mind and decide to turn it into a flip - it's too late by that point. The entire dive was intended to be a flip from the moment he left the ground, and you can tell that because, as pointed out in the original post, but the time he stretched the ball out for the goal line, his feet were already higher than his head, and rising.

Edit - fixed typo

Whether you agree with the rule or not, if it is on the books it ought to be enforced. The TD should have been called back, period.

Reminded me of the Miami player who let go of the ball at the one a couple years ago in Oxford and it tumbled through the back of the end zone (except they got the call right).

Who gives a flip about the flip.  Now if you want to discuss Ohio defenders slipping and falling, getting juked around all day, and missing a ton of tackles..then we have a worthy conversation.

Maybe it was just karma after Harden's unnecessary dive into the endzone last year against Temple, although defenders were close enough to warrant picking up the flag.

FWIW, the kid who did it acknowledged after the game that it was stupid, that he shouldn't have done it, and that it would never happen again.

I have it on good authority that orders to be at the stadium at 6 AM to run steps will generally change a player's attitude, but that a swift and unequivocal apology sometimes avoids the necessity of punitive conditioning.