# Detriot just got f\*$#ed!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detriot-just-got-f-ed/553537>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [September 12, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detriot-just-got-f-ed/553537 "2010-09-12T20:12:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 14

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**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detriot-just-got-f-ed/553537/261 "2010-09-23T00:34:04Z")

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> [@Carmady](#):
>
> > [@Omniscient](#):
> >
> > It’s been beaten to death, but Johnson was in no way “in control” when he was falling.
> 
> Of the ball. Of the ball. Of the ball. Of the ball.
> 
> Control of the ball.
> 
> Nowhere in the rules does it say “control of his body”, “control of his mental condition”, or “control of all sea creatures”.
> 
> It is clear that if you take the rule, as written, it was a catch. Obviously that isn’t the way it is ever called, though, so it wasn’t a bad call.

Well that’s just absurd. By that measure anyone who catches the ball in the air cannot possibly lose it when they hit the ground to be an incompletion. Everyone hits the ground…so in your world there are no incomplete passes when the player eventually meets Mother Earth again as long as they had the ball in the air.

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**Author:** ![Carmady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f04885/32.png) [@Carmady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carmady)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detriot-just-got-f-ed/553537/262 "2010-09-23T00:50:41Z")

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> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> Well that’s just absurd. By that measure anyone who catches the ball in the air cannot possibly lose it when they hit the ground to be an incompletion. Everyone hits the ground…so in your world there are no incomplete passes when the player eventually meets Mother Earth again as long as they had the ball in the air.

That would be for the officials to judge.

Did the player still have control of the ball when both feet were completely down? I disagree that the answer would always be yes.

As written, officials need to make that decision. But I have already given suggestions on how to change the rule so that it agrees with the way it is currently applied.

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