Changes to catch rule make harder to overturn on field of rulings

[percyhoward]

Last year was an attempt to save face for their miserable failure of overturning one of the greatest playoff moments in recent history. It was a catch by the rules in place then and would be now. Last year was an attempt to confuse with nonsense.

Absolutely. They had to take out the part about the football move, because that is precisely the part of the rule that invalidates the overturn and makes it a catch.

Now it's right back in, as it should have been all along.

 

[percyhoward]

just imagine being a ref, and it happens in a second or 2, and you have to decide all that nonsense !

That's how it was in 2015 only, after the football move was taken out of the rule. Most people don't want a bang-bang play (catch, two feet, immediate contact by the defender, loose ball) to result in a fumble. There has to be a time element in making a catch and becoming a runner. The requirement of the football move existed so that the officials wouldn't have to count one-mississippi, two-mississippi, etc. The football move gives the official an observable act to watch for -- an actual event that completes the catch process.

When you take the football move out of the rule (as Blandino did for 2015), there's no way of knowing how long is long enough to become a runner. Removing the requirement of the football move was an overreaction by the league in its attempt to justify its incorrect overturn of the Dez catch. Now the league has quietly corrected its mistake.

Well, one of its mistakes.

 

[percyhoward]

I would assume "turning up field" is broad enough to cover "lunging for the goal line".

Dez's third step proves he was "capable of taking additional steps."

 

[TwoDeep3]

If the ground cannot cause the fumble, then why can it cause the fumble in a pass?

But more importantly, why can the ground not cause a fumble?

 

[percyhoward]

In 2015, as a reaction to the incorrect overturn of the Dez catch, the league removed the requirement of the football move -- in particular, advancing with the ball -- for 2015 only. Now they've just put it back.

Here are three different versions of the catch rule, one for each of the last three years. The only differences are the parts in color. Notice the similarities of the blue parts.

2014 Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3
A player who makes a catch may advance the ball. A forward pass is complete (by the offense) or intercepted (by the defense) if a player, who is inbounds:
a) secures control of the ball in his hands or arms prior to the ball touching the ground; and
b) touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands; and
c) maintains control of the ball long enough, after (a) and (b) have been fulfilled, to enable him to perform any act common to the game (i.e., maintaining control long enough to pitch it, pass it, advance with it, or avoid or ward off an opponent, etc.).

2015 Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3
A player who makes a catch may advance the ball. A forward pass is complete (by the offense) or intercepted (by the defense) if a player, who is inbounds:
(a) secures control of the ball in his hands or arms prior to the ball touching the ground; and
(b) touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands; and
(c) maintains control of the ball after (a) and (b) have been fulfilled, until he has clearly become a runner. A player becomes a runner when he is capable of avoiding or warding off impending contact of an opponent.

2016 Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3
A player who makes a catch may advance the ball. A forward pass is complete (by the offense) or intercepted (by the defense) if a player, who is inbounds:
(a) secures control of the ball in his hands or arms prior to the ball touching the ground; and
(b) touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands; and
(c) maintains control of the ball after (a) and (b) have been fulfilled, until he has the ball long enough to clearly become a runner. A player has the ball long enough to become a runner when, after his second foot is on the ground, he is capable of avoiding or warding off impending contact of an opponent, tucking the ball away, turning up field, or taking additional steps.

Those are all football moves. They've put the football move back into the rule, which they had to do in order to have a time element after control and two feet down.

The only version of the catch rule that you can actually use to overturn Dez's catch is the 2015 version. The problem with that version of the rule (besides the obvious fact that it did not yet exist at the time of Dez's catch) is that it was so vague and incomplete, it couldn't be used by officials in real games last year with any consistency. So they've quietly changed it back.

I say "quietly" because the league published this year's new rulebook over the 4th of July weekend. Blandino's tweet about the catch process was released on the previous Friday -- the end of the news cycle. And even then, it was simply a re-tweet from a year ago, with the 2015 wording of the rule. No mention of any change in the language.

As you might have expected, this was the least conspicuous way, at the least conspicuous time, for the league to admit its mistake.

 

[big dog cowboy]

It was a catch.

 

[Pandora]

Excellent summary.

I wonder how long the owners are going to tolerate having morons run things in the league offices.

 

[StarBoyz83]

It was a catch.

It was but we would've still lost.

 

[DogFace]

That's how it was in 2015 only, after the football move was taken out of the rule. Most people don't want a bang-bang play (catch, two feet, immediate contact by the defender, loose ball) to result in a fumble. There has to be a time element in making a catch and becoming a runner. The requirement of the football move existed so that the officials wouldn't have to count one-mississippi, two-mississippi, etc. The football move gives the official an observable act to watch for -- an actual event that completes the catch process.

When you take the football move out of the rule (as Blandino did for 2015), there's no way of knowing how long is long enough to become a runner. Removing the requirement of the football move was an overreaction by the league in its attempt to justify its incorrect overturn of the Dez catch. Now the league has quietly corrected its mistake.

Well, one of its mistakes.

That's exactly what it was "an attempt to justify" that nonsense.

Many on here predicted that they would change it again after making it even more vague last year. This change makes their blunder even more obvious.

 

[DogFace]

It was but we would've still lost.

No. We would have won.

 

[DogFace]

I can't believe, yet I do, that it really is that simple. They did change the rule to suit the Dez catch. Then changed it back.

It's...

 

[TwoDeep3]

Excellent summary.

I wonder how long the owners are going to tolerate having morons run things in the league offices.

The owners are the morons. There is a rules committee made up of owners.

 

[Cowboy06]

Well let's hope we never need to look at the rule book again. Clean catches and touchdowns is all I want to see.

 

[jobberone]

Stephen is on the rules committee.

 

[StarBoyz83]

No. We would have won.

99.9% chance we would've lost lol. Couldn't stop a one legged Rodgers all game. Dallas should've put that game away multiple times but scared play calling hurt us.

 

[DandyDon1722]

Blandino is a coward who knows he's been in over his head and cashing checks ever since he was given the job. He's a used car salesman, a slick double talker who gives you a verbal slight of hand who publicly comes across as right but privately hopes you buy it. I'm not just saying that because of Dez, it's because of who he is. He's the kid who gets a job because of his old man and then tries too hard to convince everybody he's qualified.

Now the league is in the position to cover for him because firing him is the worst kind of indictment. They have to swallow him, hook, line and sinker attached.

You don't need any other evidence of this than releasing the explanation of the one rule that has more implications than any other in the entire rule book and then choose to do it under the cover of a national holiday.

It's a disgrace that there are several ex-officials who have spent their entire careers studying, explaining and interpreting the NFL rule book who now have to watch a man who has never worn a whistle in his life try and miserably fail to do the same thing.

 

[cowboyblue22]

if that does not tell you that the rules like this are made to change results of games to get the results they want the reason its was ruled incomplete was from all the grief they got over the detriot lions game.

 

[percyhoward]

If the ground cannot cause the fumble, then why can it cause the fumble in a pass?

But more importantly, why can the ground not cause a fumble?

When a runner who goes down after contact by a defender loses the ball, that can't be a fumble because the play is over -- he's been tackled.

When a receiver loses the ball in that same situaton, it's an incomplete pass.

The only way they could call it incomplete was to claim Dez had not yet become a runner -- that he had not completed parts a, b, and c. Specifically, they pointed to part c. Then they removed most of part c from the rulebook (parts that would have confirmed the catch).

Now they've put those parts back in.

 

[Boyzmamacita]

It was but we would've still lost.

We will never know. That is the crime. Yes, crime.

 

[Idgit]

99.9% chance we would've lost lol. Couldn't stop a one legged Rodgers all game. Dallas should've put that game away multiple times but scared play calling hurt us.

What game were you watching?

I agree that there's a good chance Rodgers scores again if the Dez catch were ruled properly (not 99%, but it was likely). I'd still like to have seen Romo with the ball and a chance to win it in the end.

Either way, that loss had zero to do with the play calling.