I give Percy and blindzebra credit. They have gone into case plays that very few have really even looked at.
I don't clearly know the impact of case plays as the relate to enforcing the actual rules. If they are so important, why not write them as specific rules in a way that's clear and precise?
My only thought is that they tried to keep in some way of qualifying a catch that looks like a catch, but didn't want to clearly state what that means.
The case does elude to some element being fulfilled while going to the ground. They confuse it up by adding in language like regaining balance and bracing and while being contacted.
If you go strictly by the written rule there is no question that it wasn't a catch. If you start applying the case plays it does leave questions. Questions that have since been corrected somewhat with the updated rules themselves.
The rules need a major overhaul in how they are written. The judgement calls that are still in play need to be more consistantly enforced. And if they do want to allow some action or time to be allowed while going to the ground they will need to be crystal clear in what they allow.
Hats off to all those involved in this discussion. My final answer is that the NFL tried to have it both ways. The Dez call backed them into a corner. Blandino started talking about the case plays and then the dialog sharply turned to only the rules as written. I do question why Pereira still stands by the call if the case play had merit. Unless it has far less merit than the actual written rule.
I still stand by the call as it was made. But I look more at the intent part. And how that relates to the written rule. Based on that intent, a falling player can not be a runner until after contacting the ground. It only makes logical sense. So how they could have case plays that make exceptions to that I'll never know.
Blindfaith, I will say that for the most part you have been the most open-minded of the overturn supporters, and asked intelligent questions and looked for things other than because they said it was correct to defend your stance.
A little lesson about how officiating works. Officials tend to have three books to go by: 1. The rule book, which is obviously the rules. 2. the official's manual, which deals with mechanics, responsibilities, and signals. 3. The case book which is a supplement for the rule book.
The case book does tie into individual rules. The catch rules are rule eight in the rule book, each rule has sections and articles and then items and/or notes. Our discussion is rule 8, section 1, article 3 or 8.3.1 and sometimes the rules will refer you to another section, in more recent rule books 8.3.1 refers you to 3.2.7 which deals with gaining control by performing certain acts.
If you noticed the case play is AR 8.## it is giving you the section of the rule book that the rule is under. The NFL doesn't go as far as HS and collage basketball which gives the entire rule numbers, so if our rule was for basketball it would be AR: 8.1.3.##. As I have said a few times in an ideal world everything would be explicitly spelled out and every possible scenario would have its own case play, but to do that the rule book would be huge and the case book would be unbelievably large. It would not be hyperbole to say the rule book would likely be well over 1,000 pages and the case book in the hundreds of thousands of pages. So the case book will rarely have a 100% match to a specific play, so officials need to understand the intent and spirit of the rule, know what rules need to come together for a given play, and have some common sense to apply a less than 100% case play to another situation within that rules set.