Kamu Gruiger-Hill Insists he Reported as Eligible on Miami’s Trick Play and he has Witnesses

There we were again. The Dolphins went ahead and dazzled all of us with their moxy and intellect and ran another beautiful trick play out of their special teams that worked like they practiced it or something.

Haack did his best rugby punt, or whatever style of European futbol kicking that is, impersonation and delivered a strike that would make John Beck jealous. Gruiger looked like TO high-pointing the ball. The Dolphins were up 7-6 at the time and it was the kind of play they needed to jolt some life into them. Life is good.

Except that life wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all because once again the Dolphins run another flawless trick special teams play only for it to be nullified because a player didn’t report to the referee that he was eligible. Remember all the way back to the Bengal’s game where the Dolphins ran a sweet trick special teams play only for it to be called off due to players not reporting as eligible.

You’d think that if the Dolphins cost their stealthiest offensive weapon, Matt Haack, one trip to the endzone they would surely not let that happen again because that would mean that you would have to answer to Stone Cold Brian Flores. Do you want this guy coming after you for costing his team points, yardage, field position, or looking at him the wrong way?

Seeing the Dolphins, again, screw up the reporting to the referee that you’re eligible a second time really grinded my gears. But now we have Kamu Gruiger-Hill letting the whole world know that he did in fact report to the referee that he was eligible.

Not only is Gruiger-Hill defending himself but he has several witnesses that are saying that they saw him report to the official. Blake Ferguson, Brandon Jones, and Bobby McCain are all saying the same thing: that Gruiger-Hill did what he was supposed to. I’ve watched enough Law and Order to know that if you have that many witnesses then your case is as good as gold unless some last-second DNA gets introduced and the prosecutor didn’t have time to review the new evidence. I don’t think DNA has anything to do with this so we’re good.

Good on Gruiger-Hill’s teammates for stepping up and doing the right thing. Buddies for life I imagine they are.

What I really want to know is what is the process that goes into a player reporting to the official that they are eligible. Is it as easy as Gruiger-Hill going up to Jerome Boger and simply saying “hey, I’m eligible now”, or does if he has to ask the official like Lt. Kaffee asked Col. Jessup for Santiago’s transfer order?

Here’s the Dolphin’s special teams coach, Danny Crossman explaining that the league thought the whole reporting as eligible process needed to be evaluated and stricter guidelines on how to execute the process needed to be put in place.

I’d like to live in a world where you don’t have to tell the official anything and then your conversation with that official isn’t announced on the loudspeaker for everyone to hear. I feel like that sort of takes away the element of surprise. Do you think it would have been a good strategy if the Allies had it announced, beforehand, to Germany run France that it’s possible they were going to rush the beaches of Normandy? No. That would be a bad strategy. I feel like it’s on the defense to be diligent enough to always be checking to see who’s on the line of scrimmage and who isn’t.

Let's hope that in the future, like in five days, that when the Dolphins run a trick play that involves guys on the end of scrimmage that everyone involved reports to the officials. I’d hate to see Stone Cold Brian Flores open up a can of whoop-ass on some zebra. Wait, no I wouldn’t.

Follow me @2ndSatSports