Overlooked in the Dom DiSandro brouhaha from Sunday is the ejection of 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw.
Should Greenlaw have been kicked out of the game for his actions toward DiSandro?
The authority to eject, or not, comes from Rule 13, Section 3, Article 1. The rule lists specific forms of unsportsmanlike conduct, including: (a) throwing a punch, or a forearm, or kicking at an opponent, even though no contact is made; (b) using abusive, threatening, or insulting language or gestures to opponents, teammates, officials, or representatives of the League; (c) using baiting or taunting acts or words that may engender ill will between teams; (d) any violent gesture, or an act that is sexually suggestive or offensive; (e) unnecessary physical contact with a game official.
The penalty, beyond 15 yards (or half the distance) is this: “If the action is flagrant and a game official sees the entire action, the player is also disqualified.”
Let’s consider what Greenlaw did. He threw a punch that grazed DiSandro. (Peter King described it as Greenlaw “trying to rub shaving cream” on DiSandro’s face.) But the rule regarding throwing punches is clear; it is limited to “an opponent.” As in, an opposing player.
Nothing in the rule addresses situations in which a player reacts to physical contact initiated by a non-opponent, non-teammate, non-official, or non-representative of the league. Greenlaw reacted to someone other than an official or a player to place hands on him. He didn’t punch DiSandro; Greenlaw barely touched him.
How was that a flagrant violation of the unsportsmanlike conduct rule? How does that justify ejection?
DiSandro had no business touching Greenlaw. DiSandro had no business being on the white stripe bordering the field. Some could even argue that DiSandro’s affirmative involvement in the action isn’t much different from a fan leaving the stands and running onto the field. Neither DiSandro nor the fan has any business being there.
Would a player be ejected for taking out a fan on the field, like Mike Curtis and Bobby Wagner once did?
It’s not a pure apples-to-apples comparison, but the point is the same. Nothing in the rulebook addresses physical contact (albeit grazing) by a player against a non-player, non-official, non-coach, non-league representative who does the first touching.
What Greenlaw did arguably wasn’t even a foul. It’s very confusing that he was actually ejected from the game for it.
It’s not a big deal because the 49ers won easily. If they’d lost, the Greenlaw ejection would have become one of the biggest stories of the week.
