NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made some news during the pre-Super Bowl hype that the league would be taking yet another look to “clarify” the catch/no catch rule. Apparently that re-assessment began with last night’s Super Bowl, as two plays that had been catches for the first 80+ years of the NFL–but were not considered receptions the last couple of seasons–were once again considered legal.
I’m talking about the pivotal touchdown catches by (former Badger) Corey Clement and Zach Ertz–which basically won the game for the Philadelphia Eagles last night. On the Clement catch, the use of super-slo-mo-4k-hi-def-frame-by-frame-stop-action replay showed the ball coming out of his left hand while he was out of bounds and heading to the ground before being re-secured before hitting the ground. The Ertz play saw the tight end haul in the pass, take two steps, dive to the goal-line and then have the ball pop out of his hands as it made contact with the ground in the end zone.
In both cases, the officials watching the play live and at regular speed called the catches “good” and counted the touchdowns–and then it went to replay. And this is where obvious receptions the last few years have gone to be overturned for reasons that no network analyst or casual fan can explain. NBC color guy Cris Collinsworth–after viewing the super-slo-mo-4k-hi-def-frame-by-frame-stop-action replay twice talked himself into believing the plays should be ruled incomplete–even though he would be the first to admit that they were both clearly catches–but that is the state of over-analysis of NFL replay now.
But in a refreshing twist, Referee Gene Steratore upheld both catches, giving the Eagles 12-points that proved to be the difference in an eight-point win. Now, fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys are likely very upset this morning–as they lost big games, this year in the case of the Steelers (against New England in a game that decided home field advantage in the AFC) and a few years back in the case of Dallas (against Green Bay in the playoffs) on the exact opposite calls on the same exact types of catches. These are the infamous “Jesse James Catch”–in which the Steelers tight end caught the ball at the 2-yard line, took two steps, went to his knees and reached for the goal line–only to have the ball touch the ground and be ruled incomplete on replay and the even more infamous “Dez Bryant Catch” where the Cowboys receiver jumped over the Packers defensive back, grabbed the ball, took two steps, lunged for the goal line with the ball secured in his left hand and had the ball pop out when it hit the ground.
As I posted on social media right after the game, Steratore and his crew deserve a lot of credit for those calls last night. Just because officials blew it on previous big plays, doesn’t mean that you have to too. Perhaps last night gets us on the path to calling what we can see with our eyes in real time–instead of what we think we see at one-tenth speed on a video monitor.
