The Bernstein Brief: Where's The Common Sense?
By Dan Bernstein-
(CBS) Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant caught the ball with both feet in bounds, secured it safely in one of his huge hands and made a move to lunge for the goal line.
The ball came out when it hit the ground, and officials judged that the entire series of actions constituted a single process of an attempted catch. By rule, then, Packers' ball on downs.
That's the correct call by that interpretation, which means both the rule and the way the judgment is taught need further scrutiny from the NFL. Regardless of rooting interests, a reasonable fan understands that star players making huge plays at critical times in playoff games need not be undermined by arcane lawyering of common sense.
I fully understand what happened and why in Green Bay's divisional round win, but it's bad for football and screams to be fixed.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. Follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.