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When is a Catch Not a Catch?

Discussion in 'Other NFL' started by Galant, Oct 19, 2015.

  1. Galant

    Galant Love - Unity - Sacrifice - Eternity

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    Apr 22, 2014
    So yet another controversy about catches. The Lions get a touchdown in place of a Bears interception. In my opinion it was the right call by the spirit of the rules, if not the letter. However, the scenario again highlights weakness in the NFL's technical definition of a catch. So how can this be resolved? How can the NFL change the rules/definition so that everyone knows what a catch/touch-down is and that just makes sense?

    Seems to me the easiest thing is to just take what they have and clean it up.

    1 - If the catch happens in the end-zone then the receiver has to have two feet down or a knee etc. Then they can decide, one way or another, whether or not the players has to finish the momentum of the play with the ball in control.

    If the catch (initial contact with ball and both feet to the ground) happens outside the end-zone then the receiver has to break the plane with the ball just like any running back. Just both feet down and the ball in control as the plane is broken. (All the nonsense about defining a 'runner' has to stop. One foot down outside the end-zone initiates runner status and two feet down in total, wherever, completes the catch).

    If that were the case then the Lions would have had a touch-down, end of story, as he broke the plane with the ball.

    So catch = two feet down
    Runner = two feet down with at least one foot down outside end-zone
    Control = ball in the control of at least one hand. If the ball contacts the ground it doesn't matter unless it's a one-handed catch with the hand on top of the ball, as though grounding it (since the player might cover-up a lack of control). Otherwise contact with the ground is irrelevant if the player had control beforehand.

    No, or next to no, room for error.

    2 - If they don't like that then remove the breaking of the plane rule and require control of the ball and both feet on the floor in the end-zone.

    3- If they don't like that then remove the breaking of the plane rule and require control and both feet in for catches and for runs require the player to ground the ball in the end-zone.

    So there you go, three simple ways to sort this out. Not hard, is it?

    By my ruling all of these are catches/touchdowns.

    [video=twitter;655813322533564418]https://twitter.com/NFL/status/655813322533564418[/video]

    [video=twitter;655812804557967360]https://twitter.com/RamblinGrimace/status/655812804557967360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw[/video]

    [video=twitter;655815126696742912]https://twitter.com/gregbrewster__/status/655815126696742912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw[/video]

    [video=twitter;648206051624550400]https://twitter.com/SBNation/status/648206051624550400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw[/video]
     

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