Gene Steratore's Official Statement on Dez's Catch/no catch

[Hoofbite]

It's not a "step" if you're falling. Whether or not the rule sucks is one thing. There's no need to change the definition of a step to include a toe touch when the guy is 6 inches from belly flopping onto the ground.

 

[LAZARUS_LOGAN]

Incredible. Especially when you see it in stills like that. Just sickening.

 

[Midswat]

Such a bullshit call.

Not blaming the loss on that call. But such a bullshit call nonetheless.

 

[Midswat]

^^ Yep. Football used to be basically a controlled fight with a few rules to keep things from getting too far out of hand. Now it has so many rules, and so many nuances of those rules, it's almost impossible to know what is what. It seems like common sense has gone out the window.

Spot on.

And that's why I can never " blame" the refs.

The game is so fast and the rules are so convoluted.

 

[bvhawkeye]

Yep, appears its on the ground there

And Bryant has total control of the ball

 

[dbair1967]

And Bryant has total control of the ball

I agree with that too.

 

[dbair1967]

So apparently they failed to re-set the clock correctly too. I was so mad and in such disbelief I never noticed it yesterday, but others are saying 30 seconds or so that should have been put back on due to the pass being incomplete, weren't.

Ultimately it doesn't matter because they moved the ball and ran out the clock anyway.

Of course it might have been different had replay looked at the deflected pass Cobb "caught" at the end. It was inside 2 mins so we couldn't challenge, but there was plenty of time for them to look at it again. I would have thought that was an important enough play that you want to make sure.

 

[ZeroClub]

^^ Yep. Football used to be basically a controlled fight with a few rules to keep things from getting too far out of hand. Now it has so many rules, and so many nuances of those rules, it's almost impossible to know what is what. It seems like common sense has gone out the window.

Yup. And with so many rules (and nuances), the actual implementation becomes less precise. With more possible calls to make, there are more that can be missed. And a greater level of arbitrariness is introduced.

I believe the single worst thing about today's game is that instead of being able to cheer great plays, fans are forced to wait to see if a flag is dropped after a great play. And if a flag was dropped, fans must wait to see what the officials decide to do. It seems that the game is structured so that we cheer (or boo) officials way too much. The game should be about the players and not the officials.

More than ever before, today's game is less about what the players do and more about how the officials decide to interpret what the players do.

 

[ThoughtExperiment]

I believe the single worst thing about today's game is that instead of being able to cheer great plays, fans are forced to wait to see if a flag is dropped after a great play. And if a flag was dropped, fans must wait to see what the officials decide to do. It seems that the game is structured so that we cheer (or boo) officials way too much. The game should be about the players and not the officials.

Yes. I'm so sick of seeing, in every game, WRs throwing up their hands after an incomplete pass and after a full one or two or even three count, seeing flags fly in. And that's a recent phenomenon. Flags used to come in right when the official saw it, not after a player begged for it.

But yeah, I was telling my buddies yesterday that officials shouldn't be part of the game any more than absolutely necessary. They are way too influential these days, really in every game, but especially in playoff games. They used to let them play more in the playoffs but it doesn't seem that way the last few years.