You see guys make a catch, and 1 elbow touches before they fumble and they are ruled down by contact, they had posession and the ground cannot cause a fumble. Now you have a guy catch a ball, pull it in, slide across his back side while all his knees and elbows touch and almost spike the ball. No catch....????? I get the rule, and clearly understand the way it is written, but I have never heard or seen it come into play until now. I told a guy at work that if you would have froze time right as calvin jumped up...99.9% of the world would have called touchdown, except the guy that did'nt.
The rule has always been around to my knowledge. If you enter the endzone with the ball from the playing field, all you have to do is break the plain. If you catch the ball in the endzone..you have to maintain possession. The ground cannot cause a fumble but it can cause an incomplete pass. Its not the same.
The plays I'm talking about were before you were born. My favorite player of all time is Fred Biletnikoff. I've seen him dive for a ball more than once and "catch" it ......then lose it upon landing in the end zone. In each instance, it was ruled a TD. He was deemed to have had posession when the ball broke the plane. Either they've changed the rule. Or, they've changed their interpretation.
I am with you and I agree that the play was called to the letter of the law...but can you honestly watch that play and say he did not have control of that ball. I have no dog in the fight, my falcons were a 1000 miles away getting beat by a 3rd string QB whose only deep threat was shipped off before the season for waking and baking...but I digress.
I remember a day when corners (Deion, Rod, Darrell) couple rape the receivers... I remember when the quarterbacks weren't made of glass (cept Favre of course ) I cant remember the day when you didn't have to maintain control in the endzone. But ive only been watching since 95'...thats 15 years of a solid rule.
Just to sort of add fuel to the "rules" issue. Anyone see that them make that contacting the kicker call against the Jets last night?
Biletnikoff came into the league in the 60's. He was catching passes from Stabler in the 70's and winning Super Bowls, then. Like I said......you weren't even born.
I do not know the strict interpretation of the catch rule, but I can tell you that receiver from Detroit possessed the ball and it should have been a TD.
It's a stupid rule. If he makes that catch in the middle of the field and does the same thing then it is a fumble, so I'm not sure why the end zone should be different. Everyone watching it knew that was a catch. However, the call was played right by the rule book. So the officiating crew did their job.
Rules like that are part of the reason why the NFL is losing a lot of fan base to common sense, hard-nosed college ball. When is enough stupidity enough? What's next, the move the goal post to the front of the endzone?
