Ground-shaking
Catch rule set to include ‘surviving the ground’ while allowing ball movement
INDIANAPOLIS — Surviving the ground? Omitted. Momentary loss of firm grip while in possession? Permitted.
Those are two proposed, ground-shaking changes to the long-hated catch rule that the NFL’s competition committee has settled on at meetings this week, Postmedia has learned.
All that’s left for the committee to do is determine the precise language of the new catch rule, as well as specific thresholds for video reviews by the league’s central replay command centre.
The competition committee will submit this as one of its own proposed rule changes for owners to consider at the NFL’s annual meetings in Orlando from March 25-28. All changes to the NFL’s rule- book must be approved by 75% of owners.
The NFL’s catch rule for years probably has been the most hated in sports.
The “complete the catch to the ground” element is the source of all the firestorms. As the rule now stands, for a catch to be ruled a catch, the receiver (or interceptor) must maintain possession through the process of falling to the ground. If he does not, it’s incomplete.
The result, for years, is that what often looks like a catch isn’t a catch. Super slo-mo replays have only unearthed more such controversial overturns in recent years.
According to a source in the position to know, the committee is now finally prepared to make what appear to be catches, catches. Thus, the “survive the ground” element will be eliminated if the committee gets its way with owners — as it almost always does, by the way — when it endorses a rule change.
You can probably say goodbye, too, to all the opaque qualifying language used over the years to define a catch, made necessary when the rule includes the counter-intuitive “survive the ground” element — language such as “making a football move,” or “becomes a runner.”
The second big news on this rule-change proposal is that the committee wants to make catches of plays when the ball moves slightly while in a possessing receiver’s hands — even on the way to the ground — so long as the receiver otherwise maintains obvious control of the ball. Slight ball movements should no longer be ruled incompletions, in the committee’s eyes.
The best and most recent example occurred Feb. 4 in Super Bowl LII, when Philadelphia running back Corey Clement made a great grab of a Nick Foles pass in the back of the end zone, even though slo-mo replays showed that, for an instant, the ball moved slightly in his hands. NFL central replay upheld the called touchdown. The committee now proposes this exception be written into the rule.
The committee must still work up detailed language for these changes.
As further confirmation, John Elway — the Denver Broncos president of football operations and GM, and also a member of the competition committee — told reporters late Wednesday afternoon that the “surviving the ground” element of the catch rule is essentially dead.
Postmedia’s source said that not only do all eight men on the competition committee unanimously endorse the changes, this week the committee furthermore received unanimous support in separate meetings with representative coaches, game officials and players.
John Elway told reporters late Wednesday afternoon that the “surviving the ground” element of the catch rule is essentially dead.