Personal Fouls: What makes the cut, and why?

[000635547]

I'm trying to get better on differentiating personal fouls from other fouls, and finding it to be an oddly difficult subject. Does anyone have a good line on the philosophy or rulemaking history that resulted in the list of personal fouls being what it is today?

My basic thought would be personal fouls are contact fouls that have an increased risk of injury, but there's stuff in the list that doesn't strike me as particularly dangerous (does anyone think slapping the head of a helmeted player is actually going to hurt?), and there's stuff my association is trained to look for as particularly dangerous (illegal low blocks) that doesn't make the cut.

I'm trying figure out the reason for personal foul list, so I can remember them more easily than just one-by-one memorization.

[Grant - AR]

I would say slapping the head of a helmeted player is definitely a safety issue.  The player being slapped could easily get a neck injury from that.  It might not hurt his head because he's wearing a helmet, but other injuries could happen because of the slap. 

[sj]

One thing to understand is that there are two criteria that qualifies an action for Unnecessary Roughness.

If the act is 1) Unnecessary and 2) Rough, it's a foul. Kind of simple and yet it can help.

[NVFOA_Ump]

Virtually all personnel foul violations are for actions that have been documented as creating a significant risk of injury.  The list has been developed over many decades, so my comment is something like: We don't need to ask why, we simply enforce the current rules. 

[refjeff]

I'm trying to get better on differentiating personal fouls from other fouls, and finding it to be an oddly difficult subject. Does anyone have a good line on the philosophy or rulemaking history that resulted in the list of personal fouls being what it is today?

My basic thought would be personal fouls are contact fouls that have an increased risk of injury, but there's stuff in the list that doesn't strike me as particularly dangerous (does anyone think slapping the head of a helmeted player is actually going to hurt?),

  It's called a concussion and is well documented.


 

and there's stuff my association is trained to look for as particularly dangerous (illegal low blocks) that doesn't make the cut.

  It may not be  PF but it is still a 15 yard penalty. 

[bossman72]

I'm trying to get better on differentiating personal fouls from other fouls, and finding it to be an oddly difficult subject. Does anyone have a good line on the philosophy or rulemaking history that resulted in the list of personal fouls being what it is today?

My basic thought would be personal fouls are contact fouls that have an increased risk of injury, but there's stuff in the list that doesn't strike me as particularly dangerous (does anyone think slapping the head of a helmeted player is actually going to hurt?), and there's stuff my association is trained to look for as particularly dangerous (illegal low blocks) that doesn't make the cut.

I'm trying figure out the reason for personal foul list, so I can remember them more easily than just one-by-one memorization.

Those two things you listed can be very dangerous or at the very least painful to the person receiving it.

Head slaps were made famous by Deacon Jones who taped his hand up so the could essentially club you in the head with it.
Low blocks are dangerous in certain situations like out in the open field or on change of possession and kick plays.  Running full speed on a kickoff and going low on the lead blocker is very dangerous.

[000635547]

One thing to understand is that there are two criteria that qualifies an action for Unnecessary Roughness.

If the act is 1) Unnecessary and 2) Rough, it's a foul. Kind of simple and yet it can help.

This . . . doesn't have anything to do with the question asked. Actually, all of the comments so far are offering their individual takes on individual fouls, but no one has anything to say about the actual question of how it was determined that certain fouls are designated as personal fouls, while others are not. No response would have been better.

[NVFOA_Ump]

This . . . doesn't have anything to do with the question asked. Actually, all of the comments so far are offering their individual takes on individual fouls, but no one has anything to say about the actual question of how it was determined that certain fouls are designated as personal fouls, while others are not. No response would have been better.

Really??? Did you read the comments??? I'll try again:    Virtually all personnel foul violations are for actions that have been documented as creating a significant risk of injury.  The list has been developed over many decades, so my comment is something like: We don't need to ask why, we simply enforce the current rules.

[Grant - AR]

I'm trying to get better on differentiating personal fouls from other fouls, and finding it to be an oddly difficult subject. Does anyone have a good line on the philosophy or rulemaking history that resulted in the list of personal fouls being what it is today?

I don't have a NFHS rules book in front of me, but the definition of personal foul in the NCAA rules book (I'm sure it's very similar for NFHS) is:
A personal foul is a foul involving illegal physical contact that endangers the safety of another player.

I don't have a history of when each of the specific personal fouls in the book were added, but they are all based around the potential to cause injury.  While there is a list in the rules book, I'll say that it is not exhaustive.  I'm sure there will be others added at some point in the future because rules makers can't come up with every possible scenario.  Plus, players are creative and will come up with something that's not in the book but will cause it to be added later. 

I'm trying figure out the reason for personal foul list, so I can remember them more easily than just one-by-one memorization.

As far as this goes, this is part of being an official.  Sometimes we have to memorize rules so that we know them and how to apply them.  I would say that if you see something that could cause serious injury that isn't part of the natural game of football to call it, but since you don't think a slap to the head is potentially dangerous, I would suggest you memorize the list and then be on the lookout for anything else that might fall into this category of personal fouls. 

[sj]

This . . . doesn't have anything to do with the question asked. Actually, all of the comments so far are offering their individual takes on individual fouls, but no one has anything to say about the actual question of how it was determined that certain fouls are designated as personal fouls, while others are not. No response would have been better.

There was a request in the original post for a good line on the philosophy. So I posted a line. Perhaps it's not a good one but was just trying to help. It's hard to discern what you're asking for but if you're asking about things like why it might be that an illegal block below the waist is not particularly listed as a personal foul then somebody smarter than me will have to tell you. Could just be a rule-book organization thing and since it's a foul that has to do with blocking then it's under the illegal blocking section. And maybe it's that the Illegal personal contact/Personal foul section list fouls that wouldn't justify creating a separate for each of them so they lump them together.

[lawdog]

I think its easiest to just think of the 15 yard penalties as safety fouls.  Don't hang up on the label person foul, its really not that important.

10 yarders illegal blocking.

5 yarders procedural.

[ElvisLives]

Curious. What Personal Fouls are not safety related?

I don’t have a NFHS book. But, the below list is ALL of the Personal Fouls listed in the NCAA rules. Every one of those is a safety foul. Does NFHS have other “personal fouls” that aren’t safety related?
Striking
Tripping
Targeting
Contact with the Crown of the Helmet (spearing)
Clipping
Blocking Below the Waist
Late Hit
Hits/Continued Action Out of Bounds
Helmet/Facemask fouls
Roughing the Passer
Roughing the Kicker
Chop Block
Leverage
Leaping
Contacting an Opponent Out of the Play
Hurdling
Contact Against the Snapper (scrimmage kicks)
Horse-collar Tackle
Continued Participation Without a Helmet
Blind-side Block

[NVFOA_Ump]

I think its easiest to just think of the 15 yard penalties as safety fouls.  Don't hang up on the label person foul, its really not that important.
10 yarders illegal blocking.
5 yarders procedural.

Let's not take "easiest" and just refer to the rule book.  15 yarders with signal 38 are the personal fouls and all of them are safety related.  While you could certainly argue that there are several more that could be considered safety related and therefore personal fouls this is the rule book list as identified by NFHS.

[AlUpstateNY]

I think the key words, in determining this violation, are "unnecessary" "potentially damaging" and/or "excessive".  Each incident of "Slapping the side of a helmet", may not, in and of itself, pose a specific dangerous or unnecessary threat, but the behavior ITSELF is dangerous, unnecessary and worthy of identification & penalty.  A personal foul is a BEHAVIOR that  IS SIMPLY "NOT ACCEPTABLE" , and should NOT be acceptable to ANY degree.

[lawdog]

Let's not take "easiest" and just refer to the rule book.  15 yarders with signal 38 are the personal fouls and all of them are safety related.  While you could certainly argue that there are several more that could be considered safety related and therefore personal fouls this is the rule book list as identified by NFHS.

There are several things on that list that aren't personal fouls.  If you give Signal 38 before Illegal Participation you will look like an idiot.  The question of what is a personal foul is still best addressed by just thinking about the safety fouls.  Or just ignoring the words personal foul as they really don't add anything to the information.  You can signal personal foul blind side block for instance, but does it matter?  No a blind side block is a safety foul and its 15yds and you really don't add anything by 2 signals instead of one.

[NVFOA_Ump]

Just use the rules we are given and the instructions in the book.  Real simple.

[Ralph Damren]

IMHO, we need to precede signals #30 RTK/H or #45(FM) with PF if 5 or 15 yd enforcement. There are several seldom used signals that I feel helps to identfy as a personal foul, They are:
                          #24 Illegal helment contact/targeting
                          #25 Blindside block
                          #34 Roughing the passer
                          #39 Clipping
                          #40 Blocking below the waist
                          #41 Chop block
                          #46 Tripping
Several years ago we had a chop block call. I gave only signal #41. The PA announced: "ERR...I guess 'offsides' is a 15 yard penalty now  "

My enjoyment in waving my arms may have came from my daze of youth when passenger trains rumbled thru Maine. My buddies  and I would wave to the passengers. Some would wave back, some would only wave one finger  . Passenger trains stopped in mid-60's. We then found more mischievous things to do.

   NOTE: Not all 15 yd fouls involve dangerous contact, such as IP, but needed to be treated as such to allow for previous spot enforcement.