Owners approve simplified catch language

Maybe it's too late for Jesse James and the Steelers or Zach Miller and the Bears.

No matter, the NFL has a simplified catch rule designed to eliminate confusion — and, the league hopes, controversy — about receptions.

Team owners unanimously approved the new language Tuesday, with basically three elements defining a catch:

•having control of the ball;

•getting two feet down or another body part

•making a football move, such as taking a third step or extending the ball.

"We wanted to simplify and provide clarity," Pittsburgh coach and longtime competition committee member Mike Tomlin said. "It was time to do so after we got caught up in language that didn't do that. The language was obscure and confusing."

The committee cited overturned receptions by tight ends James and Miller last season among the dozens of plays they reviewed "dozens of times," according to committee chairman Rick McKay, president of the Atlanta Falcons.

The James call was particularly impactful because the Steelers wound up losing to New England in a December game that determined home-field advantage for the playoffs. The Patriots got it and wound up in the Super Bowl. Pittsburgh lost its first postseason game to Jacksonville.

"I think the third step recommendation was excellent," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "It cleans up a majority of the (catches) that were in question. The old rule was so technical. We're better off today than in the past."

Around the league

•Late Tuesday, the owners rewrote the rule on using the crown of the helmet, making it a 15-yard penalty to initiate any hit with it.

McKay called it "a significant change," noting that it was a "technique too dangerous for the player doing it and the player being hit."

McKay said the tackle made by the Steelers' Ryan Shazier last season that resulted in the linebacker suffering a spinal injury — Shazier underwent spinal stabilization surgery two days later — was not the impetus for the change. But it was an example of what needs to be eliminated from the game.

"This one technique, we saw so many hits when a player lowered his head and delivered a hit and either hurt himself or the player he was hitting," McKay said. "It was time for a change of this magnitude."

While the offender could be disqualified, owners did not call for an automatic ejection on such a play — at least not yet. In college football, when a player is penalized for targeting and a replay review affirms it, he is ejected.

•Also approved Tuesday at the NFL meetings was making permanent spotting the ball at the 25-yard line after a touchback on a kickoff; allowing players on injured reserve to be traded; and authorizing a designated member of the officiating department to instruct on-field game officials to eject a player for a flagrant non-football act when a foul for that act is called on the field.

•The Tennessee Titans have agreed to terms on deals with quarterback Blaine Gabbert and offensive lineman Xavier Su'a-Filo.

Both deals were announced Tuesday.

The 28-year-old Gabbert is expected to replace Matt Cassel as Marcus Mariota's backup. The Titans announced March 9 they intend to release Cassel.

•The Seattle Seahawks released quarterback Trevone Boykin on Tuesday shortly after his girlfriend alleged in a television interview that he physically assaulted her in Texas last week. Boykin was a practice squad player for the Seahawks.

•The Arena Football League has appointed Randall Boe as its next commissioner and former NFL quarterback Ron Jaworski to be chairman of the executive committee.