The Catch to the Catch Rule

Every year, the NFL loves to tinker with the rules of the game. This season, they moved the extra point to the fifteen-yard line to make the kick more difficult. In previous years, they’ve made rule changes to “benefit the players” and “keep players safe” but they’ve also managed to create confusion, chaos, and anger among fans across the league. The most heavily disputed rule in the league to date is the catch rule. According to the NFL’s website on football operations, “A forward pass is complete (by the offense) or intercepted (by the defense) if a player, who is inbounds: secures control of the ball in his hands or arms prior to the ball touching the ground, touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any other part of his body other than his hands and maintains control of the ball after (a) and (b) have been fulfilled, until he has the ball long enough to clearly become a runner. A player has the ball long enough to become a runner when, after his second foot is on the ground, he is capable of avoiding or warding off impending contact of an opponent, tucking the ball away, turning up field, or taking additional steps.” With rules, however, there comes unexpected “gray areas”. In pro sports, the action happens so fast that sometimes you get a “bang-bang play” where it is too tough to confirm or deny what happened on that particular play.

With these gray areas, the officiating crew is forced to make a split second decision where, in certain circumstances, they really can’t tell what happened because it all occurred extremely fast. Even with instant replay and different angles, the judgement becomes more clouded and debatable. In the 2014 Divisional Round playoff game between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers, with the game hanging in the balance, Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant caught what appeared to be the go-ahead touchdown late in the 4th quarter. Upon review, the referees, who originally called the pass incomplete, announced that the call on the field stood because Bryant “did not maintain possession of the football during the process of the catch.” At that time, the NFL rules stated that the ball carrier must have two feet inbounds and make a “football move”. To this very day, that crucial call is still being disputed along with other catch or no catch scenarios from games past. In the end, fans everywhere have differing opinions on the catch rule. Some people make fun of its complexity while others feel that their teams were robbed due to these types of calls. We can sit and argue all day over what a catch is but the bottom line is that we’ll never truly know due to the pandemonium that has surrounded the highly questionable rule.