There’s a catch to receptions in NFL
It’s a catch, but then it’s not.
While coaches, players, fans and broadcasters become puzzled or annoyed by the NFL’s “catch rule,” the people in charge of developing and refining it through the years also have struggled. They simply couldn’t find language to simplify it, leading to the inconsistency and controversy seen for seasons. Especially this season. When such NFL personages as Mike Tomlin and Sean Payton — both with strong ties to the competition committee — seek re-examination and possibly changes to rules, it moves the issue front and center, just as much as the call on Pittsburgh tight end Jesse
James did last weekend.
“I think that we all can acknowledge that all of this needs to be revisited,” said Tomlin, the Steelers’ coach. “It’s not just that play. We’re having similar discussions week in and week out, so as a member of the committee, I acknowledge that we’ve got our work cut out for us this offseason regarding a number of those things.
“I’m just done talking about it, to be quite honest with you. You all know what we teach. Catch the football.”
Some players do, yet discover they didn’t. They’re confused by some of the calls. Even worse, they aren’t sure they understand the rules.
It should be simple, right? Receive the ball, hold onto it, get tackled and never have it move when you get to the ground.
Except there are instances when it can move as long as control is maintained.
“Yeah, I don’t even know what the language is at this point,” said Bears tight end
Zach Miller, who lost a TD reception by not “surviving the ground” on a play in which he was injured and sidelined for the rest of the season. “I don’t think a lot of people … I don’t even know if the rule-makers do at this point know what the language is. But they have it there, and it’s in place, and they’re trying to follow it as closely as they can. I just don’t know if it’s what it needs to be.”
Even the current head of league officials, Alberto Riveron, and the man he succeeded, Dean Blandino, agree that getting the language right is difficult. Many others would add getting the call right is more difficult.
Two years ago, the league consulted with a group of players that included Hall of Famers Steve Largent and Tim Brown, plus current NFL players.
“And we went over this rule, a lot of the catch and nocatch situations, and at the end of the day — we had them in for two days — they decided the best way to keep the rule is where it is right now,” Riveron says. “But that does not stop us from going over it again and taking suggestions from any of the clubs.”
Blandino got suggestions during his tenure, too. Now an analyst for Fox, he’s hardly surprised the spotlight is on the catch rule again.
“Every year, plays come up — Calvin Johnson or Dez Bryant or the play Sunday — that look like catches and people think should be catches,” Blandino said. “People don’t think those passes should be incomplete.
“The committee tried to write a rule to make that a catch and allow officials to call it consistently, and it’s almost impossible. It was definitely one of the more difficult things to explain. You can explain the rule and reasoning and logic behind it, but a lot of people don’t agree with it.”
The no-catch rule seems to bring little attention or controversy in the college game, even though the law is the same.
“The difference between control and possession” is how it is explained by Terry McAulay, a former NFL official who has worked Super Bowls and now is coordinator of officiating for the American Athletic Conference.
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is been. going, “I don’t I feel where know like we it’s where probably already this need common to bring sense in to a this little thing,” bit of he cartoon said. “The that Bleacher they put Report out of mine a couple weeks ago where they polled a hundred guys at a bar to see if it was a touchdown or not, I think that’s kind of your best bet, because common sense is pulled in there.”