Rule catches lots of flak for erasing touchdown
NFL’s ‘stupid catch rule’ rears its ugly head Sunday in Pittsburgh’s loss to New England
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” continue 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 had 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, indeed interpreted the rule correctly. Sorry, Steelers fans. They did.
It’s the rule that’s bogus, not the call.
As former Toronto Sun sports and entertainment writer Bill Harris always tells me, correctly, 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.
Hero: Todd Gurley, RB, Rams
He was as much of a beast on Sunday at Seattle as former Seahawk Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch himself ever was, carrying the Rams on his back as he blew through the Seahawks defence for 152 yards on 21 carries. All but five of those carries and 12 of those yards came in a monster first half, in which he scored three times on the ground as L.A. raced out to a 34-0 lead. Gurley added a 14-yard TD catch in the third quarter to raise his NFL-leading touchdown total to 17. Although he trails Pittsburgh’s Le’Veon Bell by 32 yards for the NFL lead in most yards from scrimmage (he has 1,817), Gurley is averaging a full yard more per touch (5.8) than Bell (4.8).
Zero: Jerry Richardson, principal owner, Carolina Panthers
Generally regarded before the weekend as a prototypical southern gentleman with oldschool values, a Sports Illustrated expose over the weekend instead 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.
Stock up: Blake Bortles, QB, Jaguars
Seriously. In three wins this month, everybody’s favourite NFL QB punching bag has completed 71 per cent of his passes for an average of 301 yards per game with seven TD passes against no interceptions. And he’s been only sacked twice in those three games. He’s gone this season from a continuing liability to, by last month, a game manager who had stopped becoming the problem, to a guy who so far this month is playing at a high level. That bodes well for a team that leads the NFL in rushing, sacks and pass defence and is third in fewest total yards allowed.