But isn’t it a problem with the rule that an obvious catch is by rule not a catch? Look at Bryant’s catch. Caught, controlled then dropped as he reaches for the goal line and I’ve seen plenty of catches where the receiver gets it, controls the ball, takes a few steps and then drops the ball when hit and yet it is incomplete because taking steps laterally based on momentum is not football move.
You know, if you’re going to talk about how bad a rule is, you should probably make sure you actually know what it says. As the official rules (already posted in this thread!) make clear, the receiver does NOT have to make a football move. They must possess it long enough to be ABLE to make a football move.
So your hypothetical receiver who catches the ball and stands motionless for five minutes has had posession long enough to be able to make a move, and has clearly not gone to the ground as a result of the catch: assuming in-bounds and what-not, it’s a completed pass. If after the five minutes, the reciever dropped it for whatever reason (as long as he wasn’t down of course), then it’s a fumble.
And again, a ‘two feet down + possession’ rule would have more times where it felt ‘wrong’, according to what we think a catch should be. I assume you don’t mean to disallow diving (or sitting/kneeling) catches, so we’d need to make sure that a knee or any other non-hand body part would also work. But now, any diving catch is complete the instant a knee or elbow touches, so if somewho dives for a ball or does a sideline tippy-toe, catches it, but has it come loose when their elbows hit, that would be a completion and cause outrage because it didn’t seem like it should be one.
That explains it very clearly, thank you.
OK I have a question on a call from the Colts/Broncos game.
Josh Cribbs of the Colts is the punt returner and Omar Bolden from the Broncos is going downfield to cover. Bolden is outside of Cribbs meaning closer to the sideline and Dewey MacDonald of the Colts is inside of Bolden blocking for the punt returner.
Bolden is angling inside to get to the returner which means that MacDonald isn’t doing a good job blocking but it also means that MacDonald is trying to move Bolden away from Cribbs. Bolden does not give Cribbs the opportunity to catch the ball (halo rule) but it is OK because he was blocked into the receiver. What? I’ve seen that call when the cover team is pushed INTO the receiver but never when the cover team runs over the blocker and receiver.
So why was it a block into the receiver?
That may be true but the “long enough” is still subjective. I’ve seen receivers take multiple steps with the ball but yet it is still incomplete.
Here is the NFL clip. At 31 seconds, Dez has landed and he is gripping the ball with both hands and it is tucked onto his shoulder. Now at 39 seconds (reverse angle) Dez has taken two steps and is falling to the ground. He has his right hand out to break the fall and his left hand is under the ball and clearly gripping it. Now look at 40 seconds. Dez clearly has control although his hand is to the side. But this is what is critical and makes it a catch. His hand is on the side controlling the ball and his body hits the ground while the ball is still at least 6 inches off the ground
That doesn’t matter. The ball hits the ground and pops out. It doesn’t matter that some parts of Dez’s body contact the ground first.
The rule seems to say that none of that matters. He’s still in the process of falling to the ground - the process doesn’t end when the first part of his body hits the ground. When that process ends might be open for debate, but it’s not ended as soon as a body part hits the ground.
Heh. I was curious to see if I responded in that thread (I rarely post in sports threads), and it looks like I did, and I did think the Lions got jobbed back then (even though I thought it was strictly the correct call by the wording of the rules), too, even though it was my home team (the Bears) that benefited from the call.
I don’t know if this matters, given the way the rules are written, but it doesn’t look to me like he’s going to the ground until he trips over the defender.
I have to say, I’m not a fan of this suggestion from Kirk Goldsberry, to make the refs throw different colored flags depending on if the penalty is on the offense or the defense.
Because you know what really gives me goosebumps during a game? When Jeff Tripplette throws a ticky-tack flag on the defense during a stellar touchdown play, so that the crowd is nice and subdued while we wait for the refs to confer and Tripplette to finally announce the penalty that will be declined. I just love watching referees work!
Yeah, well, they need to put a transponder inside the ball and have a pencil-beam spotlight tracking it so all the viewers in the stands and at home can tell what is happening.
They can do it electronically for the TV audience. Here, I’ve whipped up a simulation. Not sure why the field is white, or why the players have sticks, but whatever.
It will be awesome!!!**
Conference Championship Thread
I hadn’t seen one yet. If I missed an earlier thread post, use that one.