Hard hits are part of football, from youth leagues to the NFL.

The clip here is from the Tesoro-El Toro football game of Oct. 12. On El Toro’s game-opening kickoff, El Toro kicker Roger Howard sustained a powerful block from Tesoro’s Parker Wells.

Hits like this happen every Friday. What makes this one stand out are these details from the video clips: After blasting into Howard, Wells does not look back to see if the kickoff is a touchback or if a return is underway and more blocking is required,  but instead jogs toward the Tesoro sideline like his purpose was fulfilled; on the sideline view, some Tesoro players on their sideline did not follow the flight of the kicked ball but instead focused on Howard and Wells as if they knew what was coming.

You can see from the sideline view that a penalty flag was thrown toward the direction of the Wells-Howard activity. A personal foul penalty was assessed to Tesoro. Howard got off the turf immediately and was uninjured.

The clip, culled from the Cox3 telecast of the game and posted here with Cox3′s permission, was sent to us by the kicker’s father.

Tesoro coach Brian Barnes said of the play: “I’m not going to comment on it. It was a nothing deal. The kid (Wells) was told to block the kicker on the play. Unfortunately, he went hard. He’s a big, strong and powerful kid. There was no intent to harm anybody.”

Barnes’ father, Los Alamitos coach John Barnes, called us to protest this posting of the video of the play.

Bill Cunerty, former head coach at Capistrano Valley, Dana Hills and Saddleback College who now runs a quarterbacks camp, was on the Cox3 broadcast team for the Tesoro-El Toro game.

“From what I saw watching the play,” Cunerty said, “I was disappointed something like that took place.  The kickoff guy is just as vulnerable as the punter. The first feeling I had was, No. 1, the safety of the kicker, and No. 2, and this is the feeling of an old coach, is I don’t think there’s any place in the game for that kind of play.”

Wells is a 6-foot, 220-pound senior starting linebacker and fullback. Howard is a 6-1, 185-pound senior.

“I’m glad our kicker was able to get up,” El Toro coach Robert Frith said. “I can’t comment on the philosophy of the play or the reasoning behind it.”

El Toro defeated Tesoro, 41-31.

Related post: Brian Barnes out as Tesoro coach

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