So, as some of you know I umpire baseball (see non-sports thread). Sunday morning before the games started, I was talking to a group of coaches as we were waiting for the fog to burn off. One of the coaches was a ref in the Bama/TAMU game so naturally we gravitated toward this discussion. His comments were it was obviously not a defenseless player, which I think everyone agrees with because he was carrying the ball.
He said where its gets muddy is "what is considered leading with the crown of the helmet?" The way the refs viewed the play was that he didn't intend to hit helmet to helmet as he had his head across the front of Noil's body in a good form tackle and basically the "forehead" of his helmet is what make contact with the mask as he was driving through the tackle. They felt that he didn't have his head lowered to "torpedo" through the guy and he was just trying to execute a good form tackle with his head up and that "helmet to helmet" if you will was incidental and not intentional.
Interesting take. So, based on his comments, I'll retract my earlier argument for helmet to helmet. Trust me, if you read my umpire comments in baseball, I certainly don't envy those guys on the field either. I thought a few dozen parents were tough, but 100K fans...brutal.