 There's been a lot of controversy over the last few years about hitting defenseless players And this is something that some people have criticized because they say it makes the game too soft or that the rule Wasn't always properly enforced by the officials because as I said pretty much it is a Recently added rule to the game of football But what I want to look at here is exactly what constitutes a defenseless player And what type of contact is illegal to initiate against him So as for the technical rule it states that it is a foul when a player initiates Unnecessary contact against a player who is in a defenseless posture So let's look specifically at these two terms defenseless posture and unnecessary contact So first we need to define what a defenseless posture is and under the NFL rules There are eight different categories of what is considered a defenseless posture So the first one this is perhaps the most common one that we see whenever this rule is used Is that a player is in a defenseless posture when he is a receiver attempting to catch a pass Where's completed a catch and has not had time to protect himself or has clearly not yet become a runner And then the second part is if a receiver or runner is capable of avoiding or warding off impending contact of the opponent Then he is no longer a defenseless player So this is right after the receiver has caught the pass you have to let him kind of Establish himself to go forward The next two involve passing so the first one is that any player who is in the act of Throwing or just after he has thrown the pass so even if he isn't the quarterback sometimes we'll see a Receiver or running back through a pass so this rule within apply to him as well The next one is specifically about quarterbacks So it is a quarterback at any time after the change of possession So this might be after the quarterback is a thrown an interception and the defending team has the ball And they're trying to return it bring it back for a touchdown a defender cannot single out the quarterback So one of the criticisms of the old defenseless player rule is that it over Protects the quarterback some people say it over protects the quarterback And so this might be situation that they claim that it does over for the quarterback The next one is that a defenseless player is a player who receives a blindside block When the blocker is moving toward his own end line and approaches the opponent from behind Or from the side and so the end line is simply the The line in the back of the end zone the next two are perhaps kind of common sense This is what you would think of naturally when you think defenseless player And that is a runner already in the grasp of the tackler whose forward progress has been stopped So maybe a runner for a running back is being held back by four defenders already You can't simply come in and nail them at the end and the other part to this is that a player who is on the ground At the end of the play so again if the player running back has the ball and he's he's on the ground Maybe the whistle hasn't yet blown, but you can't come in and nail him there And then the last two are about kickers and punters kickoff So the first one is that it is a defenseless player is a kicker or a punter During the kick or the door in the return and then the other part is that a kickoff or a punt returner Attempting to field a kick in the air. So remember you cannot touch that punt returner until he has the ball Okay, so we have those eight positions and those are all about the player who is being hit And so the second part of the rule defines the contact brought against them that is illegal So there are only two parts to this part of the rule This is that a player cannot Forcibly hit the defenseless players head or neck area with his helmet face mask forearm or shoulder Regardless of whether the defensive player and the defensive player is the tackler Regardless of whether he also uses his arms to tackle the defenseless player by encircling or grasping him So in other words when you are tackling aim for the chest or lower stay away from the head and the neck This is really the areas of the body that the rule is trying to protect The second part then is that the tackling player cannot make a tackle While he is lowering his head or making forcible contact with top or the crown Or the forehead or the hairline parts of the helmet Against any part of the defenseless players body now There's a side note here that incidental contact of the helmet or face mask is legal This rule simply says the player cannot lead with their head And so sometimes you might hear the announcer Saying a player launched himself and this often comes from a player Jumping toward another player And so if you think about it naturally if you're running really fast and you jump It's likely you are going to lead with your head So it's probably best just not to jump not stay on two feet and run through the eye rather than to jump at him So hopefully then that'll give you a better grasp on what a defenseless player is and what defenders cannot do against it Thanks