Quinn’s Quickies: The NFL Doesn’t Know a Catch When It Sees One

I watched three NFL games on Sunday, and I saw three examples that the NFL simply doesn’t know what a catch is. They have over complicated the definition of a catch to the point of absurdity. It’s so bad that I would argue that they should stop using replay to review the calls or non-calls of officials. There’s one overriding reason that I say that – they suck at it. The whole point of using replay is to correct erroneous calls. That’s simply not happening. So, just live with the human error of officials making calls live.

Full disclosure – I only bet on one of three games mentioned below (Baltimore -3), and the call in question was beneficial to my bet. I’m also a Steelers fan. (They won despite the call in question.) Also, these are also obviously not my videos; I’m sharing them via YouTube’s embedding tools, which users can turn off. I’m just using them to show the play.

Bills vs. Eagles: AJ Brown catches the ball up by his face, brings it down as he’s running, has full control, and easily takes two steps. After that, the ball is knocked loose. This is an obvious catch and fumble for anyone simply watching the game of football, and, I believe, was called a fumble on the field. But because of this obscure idea that the receiver has to make a “football move,” the play was reversed after replay. (Running’s not a “football move?”)

Link at https://www.youtube.com/embed/-yRGfnQdDf8

Ravens vs. Chargers: This is very similar play to the above. The receiver clearly catches the ball and turns to run, then fumbles the ball. This play was ruled a fumble. There is simply no real difference between this play and the AJ Brown play. The lack of consistency by a billion-dollar business like NFL is pathetic.

Link at https://www.youtube.com/embed/2uAl-Mqn4HU

Bengals vs. Steelers: Diontae Johnson has two feet down in the endzone with full control of the ball. Then he gets hit and loses control. It doesn’t matter. He already caught the ball and scored. The play is over. Yet, the play was called an incomplete pass. (There was no replay, mostly because Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is terrible.)

Link at https://www.youtube.com/embed/K6n_pyswacM

If you watched the Bengals-Steelers game, you heard the analyst, Charles Davis, toeing the line for the NFL by going on about how Johnson didn’t control the ball going to the ground. He didn’t need to. It was just more evidence that the NFL doesn’t know what constitutes a catch, even by its own rules.