This just in – the National Football League just broke its own record for longest review of a play in history at just over three years and one month. After further review, Dez caught it.
Yes, that play. At Green Bay. In the 2015 playoffs.
The NFL Competition Committee agreed in meetings on Tuesday afternoon that Bryant’s catch, as well as several others, like the Megatron TD catch earlier that season, should have never been overturned.
“I think where we are unanimous,” New York Giants owner John Mara told ESPN on Tuesday, “[are] plays like the Dez Bryant play in Green Bay, going to the ground, [and] the Calvin Johnson play from a couple of years ago. I think all of us agree that those should be completions. So let’s write the language to make them completions.”
Now, before we go any further, let’s just all agree that there is no question that Aaron Rodgers would have driven the Packers the length of the field and won the game for Green bay, even after said-Dez-catch at the 1-yard line setting Dallas up for a probable touchdown.
But I digress.
The fact that the Competition Committee is doing something about the most overthought rule in sports is a step in the right direction. They certainly won’t make it foolproof. If they wanted to do that, simply go back to the basics:
- Did the player get two feet down with possession of the ball? If so, it’s a catch. I don’t care if he loses the ball after hitting the ground. If he took two steps of establishes two feet down, he’s good. I don’t want to hear any verbiage about “making a football move” either. A catch is a football move.
- For passes where the ball strikes the ground simultaneously while a player is attempting to make the catch – it is incomplete. This is simple – ground + hands = no catch.
Anyone want to ask the Steelers if rule No. 1 should be the correct call? If it were, Pittsburgh would have had home field advantage in the AFC, not the Patriots.
Another rule that was discussed (thank goodness) is the spot-foul for pass interference penalties. Give the offense 15 yards on these plays instead of 40, 50 or even 60. No penalty is worth half the field. Nope. This one may take some time though, but hopefully they get it right eventually.
Word has it that the league is beginning discussions on a targeting rule for the NFL as well. It won’t mirror the college rule, which comes with an automatic disqualification of the offending player. Personally, I hate the targeting rule in college but I understand why they created it. But when two players are accelerating at a very high rate and one player reacts to the impending hit by lowering his head, well you get helmet-to-helmet collisions that weren’t intended, and that is not targeting. This cannot be a black and white rule, which it is at the college level.
Great news that the NFL actually wants to do something about overthought rules that are bad for the game. Hopefully they can put the catch back in football catch.
And give Cowboys fans everywhere some serious water cooler talk in late February on what “should have been.”
