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Old 01-11-2015, 06:52 PM
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itjclarke itjclarke is offline
I@n Cl@rke
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Per the current rules, IMO the Bryant call was correct. As is, you need to maintain control through the act of the catch, which includes going to the ground if you've lost your balance while catching the ball. Bryant goes up, makes a great catch, but after the leap it was clear he was on his way down, three steps or not. Had he caught the ball, landed, been balanced and ran three steps, then it's a catch... and there'd have been no fumble since he'd have been ruled down by contact prior to the ball's coming loose.

This said, I don't like the current catch rules and I think they've made it too ambiguous.. see Calvin Johnson's potential game winner 2-3 years ago, wiped out, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T19FUdG42EU.. that is maybe worst reversal ever.. or at least worst since the infamous Bert Emanuel reversal in the 1999 NFC Championship game.

IMO, NFL should simplify the rule to eliminate these debates. Possession and 2 feet down= catch, possession and an elbow, knee, butt down=catch

Adding-- the PI thing against Detroit was nuts. I didn't think it was necessarily blatant, "have to throw a flag" PI. It did look really bad on TV because the LB didn't look back, but face guarding is not PI, and both players had hands on each other. It's also not all that surprising to see a flag picked up, but what was shocking to me was they ANNOUNCED IT... then picked up the flag and reversed the call without explanation. I've never ever ever seen refs actually announce a call then change their minds... and not explaining it made it look far worse.

Last edited by itjclarke; 01-11-2015 at 06:59 PM. Reason: PI last week
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