USAfootball

USA Football Rules Committee approves three rule changes for youth football rule book

Emphasis placed on proper equipment fitting and player safety during kickoffs

USA Football’s Rules Committee, composed of youth football league commissioners and game officials from across the United States, conducted its annual meeting Tuesday, Nov. 20, in USA Football’s Indianapolis office.

The 10-person committee approved three rules for youth football play for the USA Football Youth Football Rulebook, which is employed by youth football leagues spanning 15 states.

USA Football is the sport’s national governing body in the United States and recommends standards for America’s youth football community.

The USA Football’s Rules Committee approved the following for the 2013 USA Football Rulebook:

•  A player whose helmet comes completely off during play, other than as the direct result of a foul by an opponent, must leave the game for the next down. The game clock will stop at the end of the down, and a team timeout is not permitted to allow the player to remain in the game.
• At least four members of a kickoff team must be on each side of the kicker. This prohibits a kicking team from bunching up, especially during onside kick situations to create significant mismatches when trying to recover a free kick. This is a 5-yard illegal formation penalty.
• No kicking team player can block an opponent until a member of the kicking team is eligible to touch a free-kicked ball – either after the ball travels 10 yards or a member of the receiving team has touched the ball. This is a 10-yard illegal block penalty.

The new rules are designed to emphasize player safety in the youth game, said USA Football Rules Editor BILL LeMONNIER, a veteran college referee.

“Helmets that come off during play are often the result of not being properly fitted,” LeMonnier said. “By putting an emphasis on proper equipment fitting before the game even begins, you make it a part of a coaching staff’s plans.”

The new kicking rules address player safety during onside kick situations, where a member of the receiving team is often outnumbered by kicking team members and can divide attention between oncoming opponents and recovering the ball.

“Young players trying to recover an onside kick are preoccupied with the ball and often don’t see the players rushing toward them,” LeMonnier said. “The rules allow for fair play while putting the safety of the players first.”

Points of emphasis for 2012 included illegal contact to the head and trick plays that resulted in unfair acts. Committee members said they saw declines in the number of instances for both issues this fall.

“Making initial contact above the shoulders is a much more visible issue than it was even a year ago,” said committee member DON STITT of Fairfax County (Va.) Youth Football League. “Coaches are teaching it better, officials are looking for it, and parents are recognizing it more.”

“Rule changes need to be adapted to the game as it is played today, not the game that our father’s played,”  LeMonnier said.

USA Football offers concussion education guidelines and resources for the youth football community and has worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and medical experts regarding concussion education since 2007. More than 100,000 youth football coaches in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., have received coaching education and training from USA Football since 2007.

For new rule or rule amendment proposals to be added to USA Football’s Youth Football Rulebook, at least two-thirds of committee members must approve.

The 10 voting members of the Rules Committee are:

About USA Football: USA Football recommends national standards for America’s youth football community. As the sport's national governing body in the United States, USA Football hosts dozens of football training events annually offering education for coaches, skill development for players and resources for youth football league commissioners. The independent non-profit is the official youth football development partner of the NFL and its 32 teams as well as the Atlantic Coast Conference. USA Football manages U.S. national teams within the sport for international competition and awards $1 million annually in equipment grants to youth and high school football programs based on merit and need. USA Football is chaired by former NFL team executive Carl Peterson.