There is a much, much, much bigger emphasis on thrying to knock the ball loose than there was in the 80’s. Every taclke nowadays the second guy who comes in tries to put his helmet on the ball or rip the ball loose. Holding the ball away from your body just doesn’t work in today’s NFL.
There’s also heavier enforcement now of the “excessive celebration” rule in the No Fun League.
Yeah. I’m a longtime Cal fan (I was at the Jahvid Best game) and I was at a game in 1991 when Cal RB Russell White got flagged for hurdling a defender.
Actually I’m surprised at how often the players do that, and that there are not more swipes and fumbles.
Guys still jump over the line all the time. Like Oakminster said, Mike Bell did it earlier this season. I’m sure there are other examples, I just can’t remember any off the top of my head.
I think reasons it might be done less is that:
- the linemen on both sides are bigger/taller, so it’s harder to jump over them,
- the linebackers have gotten better at timing the jump at they themselves will sometimes jump over the line,
- injury risk
Back in the 80’s and before, I don’t think the refs would have allowed this like they do today. They would have just not considered it as a fumble; they would have ruled that the player was ‘down’ or ‘forward progress halted’ or even ‘in the grasp’ (for QB’s) and the offensive team would have kept possession. Heck, back then some of the blatant attempts to knock or pull the ball loose today would have drawn an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty!