NFL Catch Rule vs. NCAA & NFHS

[FormerUmp]

Originally Posted by bisonlj

I'm surprised to see people struggle with understanding what is meant by "going to the ground as part of completing the catch". When I first heard about this play I figured there would be some uncertainty over whether he made a move before lunging for the end zone. When I finally I saw I was surprised how obvious he was going to the ground the entire time. That is one thing that is not in question at all. Because of that, none of the other actions matter. You can make arguments over whether or not the ball hit the ground when it was loose or if there is enough evidence to obviously overturn the call on the field, but neither are horrible calls. They are just calls and someone paid to make that decision made an unbiased decision.

Someone commented the NFL has made the catch rule too complicated. I would argue they have greatly simplified it. This play is a great example. Very simple...go to the ground, maintain control, catch. Without that you have all kinds of subjective decisions to make on this play.

If you really want a play like this to be a TD you need to remove catch/no catch from replay. I agree to the naked eye in real time on the field, this was a catch. Thanks to technical rules and HD cameras with multiple angles, the bobble is detected and this becomes an incomplete pass. You have to accept that decision if you are going to have replay.

I think the argument in favor of this being a TD is that he clearly made a clean catch with control of the ball and lunged for the endzone, only losing control after the ball had broken the plane. People are seeing that as a football move. Given the inconsistent way that replay decisions have been made this year, with several decisions not being supported by video, it should be no surprise that high-profile calls are getting even more attention than usual. Also, technically, he survived his "initial contact with the ground," which was his knee, then lunged for the endzone, losing the ball after that.

I do think it's worth exploring if there's a way to modify the rule so that this play and others like it are touchdowns, as they should be, in my opinion. The key would be to do it in such a way that it's not going to lead to a bunch of cheap turnovers in the field of play. Perhaps a rule change that only applies to the endzone?