By Mark Uyl, Asst. Director, MHSAA

Be the Referee is a weekly message from the Michigan High School Athletics Association that is designed to help educate people on the rules in different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating, and to recruit officials.

Clipping in the free-blocking zone

Most of the recent rules changes in high school football have all dealt with increasing player safety.  The most significant change for the 2016 season focuses on safety, especially for offensive and defensive linemen.

For many years, the Free Blocking Zone, that area between the two offensive tackles, was an area where two types of blocks that are illegal on other parts of the field—blocks below the waist and clipping—were legal if it was done by linemen, initially at the start of the play.

For this season, clipping is now an illegal block, even in the Free Blocking Zone; while blocks below the waist continue to be legal from in front.