I will have to be hasty here. My last post on the great College Football
Playoff was co-opted by a Grantland article that made the same conclusion
while, predictably, putting my writing and thinking to shame. That’s okay, they get paid to do it, but I won’t
dally further on a topic that has large significance.
The “process rule” is the worst rule in organized
football. Many will not understand what
I mean by that, but the rule (in the NFL, although college football has a
similar rule) states that “if a player goes to the ground in the act of
catching a ball, he must maintain control of the ball throughout the process of
contacting the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he
loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains
control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball
touching the ground, the pass is complete.”
In essence, hitting the ground can cause you to lose possession if you’re
catching a ball, unless you maintain control all the way through hitting the
ground, assumedly sliding a bit, and coming to a full stop.
I don’t like the idea that the ground can cause a
player to lose possession, mainly because that rule is invalidated when a
player goes to ground after contact.
Think on NFL plays, and we all know points when the ball pops out after
a knee or elbow is down, and the refs blow the play dead. Happens with enough regularity where I don’t
need to find examples.
But when catching a ball while going to the ground,
whether your knee or elbow are down prior to losing the ball does not
matter. Contact with the ground that
causes a ball to pop out results in an incomplete pass, regardless of whether
your knee, elbow, wrist, shoulder, butt, or head hit the ground prior to
contact with the ground. It’s an
inconsistent view of the ground’s ability to affect possession. Running backs need not control the ball
through the process of going to the ground, but receivers must.
Lest anyone think I am writing this to defend Dez
Bryant or preach for a Cowboys win, my record of Dallas hatred should be
decently clear. Truthfully, I can see
how some could interpret the rule above to result in an incomplete for Dez on
the play. But, I have to say that to
me looks like a catch, primarily because Dez takes two steps before hitting the
ground. Are they more stumbles than
steps? Sure, but it isn’t as if he’s
laying out horizontally for a ball that popped out at the very end. But, at the very least, the eye test shows
fairly clearly that he has the ball caught.
It isn’t moving in his hands or anything like that, and then he takes
two steps.
The best thing about this call is the assured Cowboys
loss. After that, it’s all
negative. My interpretation is of course
just one man’s opinion, but the underlying issue remains unsolved. Can contact with the ground cause a player to
lose possession or not? Should it matter
if you’re a ball carrier or a receiver, especially in cases where the receiver
is shown to have possession prior to his body hitting the ground? I don’t know the correct answer, but what’s
troubling is I don’t think the NFL does either.
