The NFL is back at the table once again to change the catch rule. The NFL’s rule-making competition committee has tweaked the rule in order to clear things up and stop the controversial calls that come from it week after week.
The committee hopes to have the rule finalized by Tuesday night and present it to the 32 owners at the annual meeting next week according to Troy Vincent the league executive VP of football operations.
“We worked backward,” Vincent said in a phone interview with Washington Post. “We looked at plays and said: Do you want that to be a catch? And then we applied that to the rule…Slight movement of the ball, it looks like we’ll reverse that. Going to the ground, it looks like that’s going to be eliminated. And we’ll go back to the old replay standard of reverse the call on the field only when it’s indisputable.”
The new rule would require the receiver to have possession of the football but is now taking away the aspect of reviewed movement of the ball resulting in incompletions. Vincent also added that the Dez Bryant and Jesse James plays would both have been ruled catches.
(UPDATE 3/27/18)
The NFL owners have voted on the catch rule and it has been officially passed 32-0 in a unanimous vote. NFL Vice President of Communications Michael Signora tweeted this list of other rules voted on this morning by the owners.
The playing rules & bylaws approved by @NFL clubs this morning pic.twitter.com/vyfeqLybLl
— Michael Signora (@NFLfootballinfo) March 27, 2018
The new guidelines on NFL.com state these are the guidelines
- Control the ball
- Two feet down in bounds or another body part
- A Football move such as; a third step, Stepping or reaching toward the line-to-gain or the ability to before such an act.
With this new rule, the league attempts to bring clarity to the rule which it seems like it will. Hopefully, the rule will not need to be tweaked again but we will see after this season whether this adjustment will help eliminate catch controversies.
