CATCH
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NOT A CATCH
[youtube]LSYDYI4F4xs[/youtube]

wtf...

I think Johnson's problem was that he went up so high for the grab. He went up high, secured the catch with both hands, his feet hit the grand and he began to fall. Naturally, as a 6'5 individual he wanted to break his fall to avoid getting hurt so he took his left hand off the ball to break his fall and slammed his right hand into the ground which held the football to make sure he wouldn't hit the turf. The ball got jarred loose by the ground. By the rules that's not a catch. If Johnson had went to the ground both hands on the ball he would have been fine. He obviously had control when he had both hands on it and you can't palm a football like that without having control. If he had held onto if after the ball hit the ground it probably would have been a touchdown.

My problem is with how complicated that process is. I agree with IronMan in the fact that I like how it is a black-and-white call which definitely makes it easier on the official, but when it negates a play that in everyone's eyes was a catch it's a bad rule. If you were playing football right now and someone had made that catch it's a touchdown. Anyone bringing up all the "rules" about catching would be shit on. I just can't believe how many rules there in the NFL now. It's getting harder and harder to watch. The funny thing is that it's only going to get worse.

The process? A play like this happens--a play that questions a specific rule. So what does the competition committee do? They take a look at the play and the rule and attempt to devise a way to make the rule clearer albeit more complex. The rules then are getting more complex and thusly harder to interpret in these kinds of situations. The more rules they make and the more complex the rules get only makes the game last longer, makes it harder to actually get a feel for the game, and creates situations like these. It's about time the NFL got together and took a look at the rulebook in an attempt to simplify it, not make it more complex.

There is one reason for all of these complex rules: instant replay. Before instant replay, the game was more simple. But now plays are being judged in slow motion with multiple viewings from multiple angles by groups of officials who then make a decision as a committee. And to make matters worse, they've never lived up to the "indisputable evidence" standard for overturning plays. When a play is close they just make their best guess, even if it overturns the call on the field.

This particular rule at least makes sense to me though. Not like that horrible tuck rule. The bottom line for me is that if you are Calvin Johnson trying to make that game-winning catch you should grab that ball with both hands and hold onto it as if your life depended on it, until the referee signals touchdown.

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Exactly. That no doubt should have been a catch--it's just that Megatron didn't know the rule well enough to secure the ball properly. But it's a bit tough for a receiver to try to catch a ball and, in the matter of a second go through that rule, in it's entirety, in his head, and attempt to follow it every step of the way lol. Let's be honest here, the majority of these players aren't scholars they're athletes. Physical specimens.

I agree that the wording of the rule makes sense and the call of the catch makes sense via the rule but the rule needs to change if what Johnson did is not considered a catch.

As with every rule you're trying to be as general as possible to cover multiple situations. But sadly it doesn't work because the circumstances are always so different. What we have here is a situation where the everyone normally would agree on it being a catch but one in which the rule disagrees with the circumstances.


My main point? Look at his body language. He knew he had it and he let it go when he hit the ground. I DOUBT the ground would have caused that incompletion if Johnson would have known beforehand that it would be called incomplete. He would have adjusted and taken every step he could have to make sure that that didn't happen. It's just sad that these calls are actually deciding games. When it happens during the middle of the game and there's time to play it's a lot easier to move on because you still have plenty of opportunities to win, but to have something like that taken from you? It's awful. It reminds me of our wild card game last year against the Cardinals which is probably why this call makes me so upset.

Most of this falls on Johnson. He should have taken every step to make sure that ball was secure otherwise this whole disturbance would have never existed. Still, it's a really nasty situation lol.

Calvin did NOT let the ball out of his hand. Look at the play, you can see his hand clasp as if the ball was knocked out by the ground, which, it, was.

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My opinion is that the process of catching the ball ends if there is any action after control of the ball is established or if there is an action after the impact with the ground. If a player takes two steps with control of the ball and then goes to the ground, there is an action between the catch and the going to the ground. Also if the player maintains control of the ball through the impact with the ground and rolls on his hip to get up and the ball hits the ground and jars loose. There is again, an intervening action. The interpretation of the process of catching the ball is flawed. Once control of the ball is established, the process has ended.

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But he DIDN'T maintain control of the ball through the impact with the ground.He was not rolling on his hip to get up when the ball came loose. He was completing the fall that began before he caught the ball.

The fact that people see this differently is why the NFL came up with this rule. It's much easier to enforce (especially during a replay challenge) than if you have to decide at what point during his fall the player lost control of the ball. With this rule, the player has to maintain control until he finishes the fall. Period.

The call against Jennings last year looked even odder than this one because Jennings caught the ball with both feet in the end zone and then it came loose when he hit the ground beyond the end line. But once the rule was explained, most people accepted the call and moved on.

If they changed the rule, there would still be controversial calls. They would just happen on different plays, and I think the gray area where judgment comes in would probably be larger than it is with this rule.

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I simply cannot agree with this statement from a physics perspective. The fall was complete when his legs hit the ground. The ball comes out of his hand as he's attempting to regain his feet.

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Maybe you need an update on physics my friend? heh 😛

Seriously though, checking the video, watch his arm. Whether he has control or not, his arm swung from the momentum of falling and when the ball hit the ground, it popped loose from his grip, which is evidenced by the clasping of his hand. Provide an answer for the clasping of his hand simultaneously as the ball touches the ground and comes out of his hand and I might sway my opinion. I am open to this, but gosh, I just don't know how the ground can be thought of as anything but the culprit of dislodging the ball.

It's so obvious (ahh thats why you're disputing this, you like to defunct the obvious, i get it now) Calvin's momentum carried him backwards into rolling which is why the ball swung in his hand into the ground.

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What's frustrating about that video is the most interesting angle on the catch, our view of Johnson is blocked. I'll study this in more depth after school tonight, but it sure looks to me not that the ball is knocked out but that Johnson deliberately opens his hand, thereby releasing the ball.

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I think it is more the impact of the ball hitting the turf hard that makes his hand involuntary squeeze which made the ball be released..

I am not sure squeeze is the right word I am looking for though.