Rule catches lots of flak for erasing touchdown
The Oxford Dictionary defines the verb catch, in the applicable sporting sense, simply as to “capture … in hands, etc.”
The NFL’s definition is considerably more verbose. And complicated. And hated. Today maybe more than ever.
“Completing the catch to the ground” continues to be by far the most contentious qualifying words in the NFL rule book. That’s because the idea is counter-intuitive much of the time.
It means that, during the process of catching a pass, if a player falls to the ground for whatever reason, he must continue to tightly secure the football in his hands or against his body, essentially until coming to rest on the ground or “surviving the ground,” as is the now widely used phrase.
But when we saw what at real-life speed appeared for all the world to be a catch instead ruled an incompletion because the NFL continues to insist on including this contentious qualifier, we lost our minds.
Even if we don’t care which team the call benefits.
I’ve never heard a press box explode in outrage and anger as I did Sunday in Buffalo, N.Y., as NFL writers from Western New York, South Florida and yours truly from Ontario — while finishing off our Bills-Miami Dolphins stories hours after that game ended — couldn’t believe what we were seeing on TV.
Overturned?! Are you freaking serious?! How can that not be a touchdown?!
Yet the referee, in conjunction with the NFL’s central replay command centre in New York, overturned what seemed a sure go-ahead scoring catch by Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Jesse James with 28 seconds left in the Steelers’ eventual 27-24 loss to the New England Patriots.
That’s because even though James cleanly caught the ball, fell to the ground on his knees without being touched by a defender just short of the goal-line, broke past the plane of the end zone with the ball in tight grasp and then, as he continued to fall forward, the ground eventually caused James to briefly lose his grip on the ball ... and it’s ruled incomplete.
The referee and the NFL’s senior vice-president of officiating back in New York, Al Riveron, interpreted the rule correctly. Sorry, Steelers fans. They did. It’s the rule that’s bogus, not the call.
The NFL needs to stop defending its stupid catch rule and instead look at all these plays that look like touchdowns and write a rule that makes them touchdowns. In so doing, they’d only please everybody. Zero: Jerry Richardson, principal owner, Carolina Panthers
A Sports Illustrated expose over the weekend alleges the 81-year-old Richardson is a calculating, chronic sexual harasser at work who on one occasion additionally used a racially disgraceful term to describe a team scout. The proof listed in the long story seems incontrovertible. Richardson must have realized as much as Sunday night he announced he is selling the team at the conclusion of its season. Good.