Changes to NFL’s catch rule are ‘long overdue’

Should the Calvin Johnson play be a catch?

That question was one of many that came up during the NFL’s more than two-year-long process of redefining the catch rule, and the answer – a resounding yes – is a big reason why the league might finally adopt a new standard for what is and isn’t a reception this week.

“What we tried to do is really simplify the rule,” NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay said in a conference call Friday. “For the fans, for the players, for everyone else, and we’ll have to see.”

NFL owners will consider a proposal at their annual spring meeting this week to modify the definition of a completed (or intercepted) pass to include just three elements: ❚ Control of the ball ❚ Two feet or another body part down on the ground

❚ A “football act” such as reaching for the goal line or tucking the ball away, or the ability to make such a move

Gone from the definition is the “process of making a catch” stipulation that required players to “maintain complete and continuous control of the ball” until after their initial contact with the ground.

That condition led to Johnson’s would-be game-winning touchdown for the Detroit Lions against the Chicago Bears being ruled incomplete in the 2010 season opener.

Johnson’s play would be considered a catch under the proposed change.

“We tried to make it a very definable three-step process, which is control – he made a clean catch of the ball – two feet down or a body part, and then do anything with the ball that shows it’s a football act,” McKay said. “So it’s just a simple three-step process. We got rid of going to the ground, which was definitely causing some of these plays to be ruled incomplete.”

Johnson’s play is one of several hotly-debated non-catch calls that have frustrated fans and perplexed players in recent years.

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant had a long catch overturned in the 2014 playoffs after replay officials ruled he lost control of the ball when he fell to the ground while reaching for the end zone, and Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Jesse James had a go-ahead touchdown against the New England Patriots overturned in similar fashion last season.

Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, said all three of those plays were reviewed by the league’s “catch committee,” a group of current and former players, coaches and executives who’ve been working with the league since late in the 2015 season to clarify the catch rule.