I saw a bunch of the replays and it was very intentional.
When did it happen? I read on a local Cincy site that it *was* during the "brawl", but ESPN said it wasn't: "Williams stepped on Miami guard Solomon Kindley at the end of a passing play. Neither player was penalized for the incident at the time."
I did watch the second hit on Grant again a few times and that's just ridiculously dirty in my book. The rule is very simple. The catcher has to get a chance to make the catch before you can hit him. You can't hit him *simultaneous* with the catch, it has to be *after*. That makes it very simple to avoid hits like the second one against Grant. Since the gunner *must* have his head raised (can't lead with crown): Is the ball in his field of view when he launches himself? No, then he can't launch and if he does, he should at least try to avoid doing damage (so lead with his hands, rotate to avoid impact etc). Anything else is *deliberate* with an enormous risk of injury.
There's a reason there are very few kick catch interference calls. Personally, I think it's ridiculous that the above scenario results in the exact same penalty as a player accidentally getting in the way of the catcher's route to the ball. Action, intent, and consequence are completely different, so why should the penalty be the same?
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