Catch or No Catch?

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by Forksref

What's with the mesh adjustable hat on the referee? Hard to maintain credibility when you wear something like that.

Why is that? Mesh typically provides for increased airflow, leading to reduced trapped heat.

[HLin NC]

And how would you know about trapped heat in Ontario?

Not sure what the NCAA definition of a catch is but in Fed, which is what Cali plays under, that should have been a TD from the last look. He had possession and was on the ground, defender knocked loose a dead ball.

[jaybird]

Td!

[Scooby]

Catch.

[JugglingReferee]

So I hooked my laptop up to my 46" TV.

I can see the video a lot better now.

I have a TD. The receiver survived the contact with the ground, therefore touchdown, with Canadian philosophy.

The act that caused the ball to dislodge was the helmet of a B player. Since this act was after the player surviving contact with the ground, it's effect on possession is irrelevant.

[JugglingReferee]

The related video on the right:

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2388386/7449583

Thoughts? I have a catch / forward progress stopped.

[Bob M.]

REPLY: Both of these plays are excellent teaching tools. In particular, the first one points out a fundamental philosophical difference between Fed and NCAA. In Fed, one might justifiably say that the player had possession while on his back in the endzone. Therefore the ball is dead (and the result is a TD) when the defender comes in and strips the ball off the receiver's chest. In NCAA, the prevalent thought is that the result is an incomplete pass. Their philosophy is that the receiver's control must survive both (a) his going to the ground, i.e. the ground can cause an incompletion, and (b) the immediate hit by the defender (assuming that the hit isn't so late as to be deemed a PF).

In the second play--the one that JugglingRef posted--I see it as an incomplete pass for both codes. Notice that when the defender finally makes contact with the receiver's arm(s), the ball is well below his belt, and the ball actually has its point in the receiver's crotch--not a place where I could legitimately say he had clear control and possession. And, with all due respect to JR, I really can't see it as a situation where forward progress has been stopped, since the runner hasn't lost voluntary use of his legs. Ask yourself: If the receiver had maintained possession and then broken free, would you feel good about having blown the whistle and killed the play?