Issues in Indexing: When Guidelines Contradict

As with everyone in my LS 566 class, I have been working upon indexing a handful each of DePol Engravings and UA Football images. This was going fairly well, up until I read the Guidelines for the Description Element. In particular, the section that gave me pause was this one: "Additionally, the players involved should be included (include the name, number, and team in parentheses if visible), as well as the action (punt, pass, interception, etc.) and any relevant contextual information (down, statistics, importance of the game, etc.). IMPORTANT: This information will be available in the Abstract section, so make sure you index the Player Names Element before you index this one!"

That might seem odd, given that it's a sensible set of guidelines to describe an image of a football game. The reason it occurred to me that this could be an issue was that I knew our guidelines for the Abstract element had this line, "Partially covered or covered numbers will make a player unidentifiable and will be excluded from the data entered," in it.  The combination of the two mean that in images where no Abstract may be assigned, then neither can a Description.

Upon checking back over the images I was tasked with indexing, I discovered further that I am responsible for just such an image. This image contains two players. The numbers on each player's jersey are obscured. The Auburn player's number is obscured by the fact that he is partially out of frame, while the ball-carrier's number is obscured on the front of his jersey by his hands and on his helmet by the glare of the stadium lights. Given that, by the guidelines-as-written, the only description I can give this 1) require knowledge of football that I lack (I don't know if this is a run, a pass, a kick return or what) and 2) are vague in the extreme. As in, "Alabama player carries ball while referee watches on," vague.

As such, I would be grateful for any help or clarifications that could be offered for this image.