Not having conference affiliated refs in basketball has done little to curb fan complaints about how games are called.
I said call it literally anything else other than a blindside block. Not that I’d agree with it either way
I don’t think that’s a penalty worthy hit. The defender didn’t lower his head and lead with the crown of the helmet. He didn’t launch. He just made big time contact on a receiver. That was a textbook big hit.
The continued wussification of football. They couldn’t call targeting so they called it a crackback block. A crackback block is defined as this: “An illegal crackback block occurs when an offensive player comes from more than two yards outside the offensive tackle, or from the backfield, and makes contact below the waist, above the neck, from a blind side, or from behind.” The refs took what was simply a legal block and threw a flag because a defender got hit hard. If it was targeting or helmet to helmet they would have called that. If he got hit hard for real they would have called unnecessary roughness. Instead they came up with some obscure BS to further degrade the game.
That wasn’t the only questionable call…. Sherif Denson had two interference calls that I couldn’t figure how the refs faulted and there was a block in the back that was called on Crenshaw-Dixon. From my angle the defender turned his back to the blocker. The announcers were over the top on how he “did it twice.”
Not defending the call- agree it was both home crowd bias and officiating saying "It's a hard hit- it must be flagged." I also should add that the game was perhaps the 2 worst teams in the SEC. That means it gets the worst officials and the worst ESPN crew.
Same for the others who didn’t overrule it. Imagine what today’s refs and TV networks would do with this;
If that is an illegal block then let's just get to flag football already so I can switch to watching the lingerie football league.
you’re 100% right. I was thinking the exact same thing. That dude just turned his back to the guy twice. There’s nothing wrong with that block in the ESPN guys are dumber than door knobs.
