March 26, 2018
In recent NFL seasons, seemingly every week, there was a big debate over what is or isn't a catch. During the 2018 offseason, the NFL sought to improve the catch rules, making them more objective, and less subjective.
Speaking at the NFL's Annual Meeting in Orlando, Rich McKay, chairman of the NFL Competition Committee, and Al Riveron, the NFL's Senior Vice President of Officiating, explained the NFL's new catch rule proposal.
"We basically took the catch rule and rewrote it," Riveron said. "The three components of a catch: control, two feet or another body part, and a football move.
"On a 'football move', we'll give you some examples, of reaching, bringing the ball in, a third step... So there are a few examples in the rule, but it's not limited to those examples. But we have some plays here (in a video) that will be sefl-sufficient."
The proposed catch rules do seem like an improvement. We'll see.
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