What is an NFL catch? One of the most controversial calls of the 2014 NFL season was the non-catch decision with Dez Bryant in the Dallas Cowboys agonising loss to the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs. It was a very confusing decision, and it made it very clearly that no one actually no one knows the NFL catch rule. It that still riles fans up because 99% of people watching it thought it looked like a catch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oSgdm94CAE
News then that the NFL have changed the rule surrounding this particular scenario would appear to hint towards a move towards allowing that decision to be called a catch. Not so however. According to former vice president of officiating Mike Pereira on twitter highlighted the difference between the old rule and the new rule. Here is how the new rule now read:
A player is considered to be going to the ground if he does not remain upright long enough to demonstrate that he is clearly a runner. If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact by an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball until after his initial contact with the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he loses control of the ball and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete.
This does appear to cement that the Dez Bryant incident wouldn't be a catch as a rule, compared to the vagarities of how the old rule was phrased (via Deadspin):
A player who makes a catch may advance the ball. A forward pass is complete (by the offense) or intercepted (by the defense) if a player, who is in bounds:
a) secures control of the ball in his hands or arms prior to the ball touching the ground; and
b) touches the ground in bounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands; and
c) maintains control of the ball long enough, after (a) and (b) have been fulfilled, to enable him to perform any act common to the game (i.e., maintaining control long enough to pitch it, pass it, advance with it, or avoid or ward off an opponent, etc.).
If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact by an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball throughout the process of contacting the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, the passis incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete.
While referees must be thankfully for the removal of the vague "act common to the game" or 'football move' phrase in the rules, football fans everywhere are not pleased that something that looks like a catch, walks like a catch, and tastes like a catch still doesn't count as a catch.
Now we just need to figure out how long is enough for "does not remain upright long enough to demonstrate that he is clearly a runner".
@MikeTanier it should be the duck rule. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, talks like a duck. It looks like a catch, it's a catch!
— PJ Spangler 🇺🇸 (@PJ_Vikes) July 23, 2015
I still can't believe it's not butter.
