Quote:
Originally Posted by MD Longhorn
That said... I honestly am flabbergasted that ANYONE who is an official is arguing about this call. Other than NE sympathizers, there's no basis for it. I don't think it's even remotely possible that the receiver is able to completely stop his forward momentum and reverse his path and then make up 2 yards within the POINT THREE FOUR SECONDS that elapsed between the first conceivable instant of interference and the instant the ball was caught.
Think about it... the fastest players in the world run a 4.00 40. That's 10 yards in one second, at full speed. So even at full speed TOWARD the ball, it takes .2 seconds to go 2 yards. He was moving AWAY from the ball. Someone expects him to stop, reverse, and go those 2 yards AND go around the defender AND catch the ball. Impossible. Zero point zero zero zero, people.
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I do not agree with the premise of how you framed this. Gronk was stopping his momentum already, beginning to come back. Only then was he driven back, not by a little DB but by one of the best LBs in the game. The DB then slid under the newly created space. The DB *probably* could get there anyway, but it's not anywhere near impossible to me.
I accept you see it more definitively than many others do, but I thinks it's quite condescending to say that a large number who don't see it that way are lesser officials. We have two former NFL supervisor of officials who would have called DPI, one who wasn't sure but wouldn't have changed it (Mike Periera) and one who wholeheartedly would have called it DPI (Jim Daopoulos). Are you flabbergasted at them too? Are they NE sympathizers?
It was a tough call made in an high-pressure situation. Both interpretations are valid and justifiable. I would hope we could discuss a very close one in a professional way without this kind of hyperbole.