Report: NFL Committee Says Dez's Play Should Be A Catch In The Future
INDIANAPOLIS (105.3 The Fan) - Dallas Cowboys fans have known it all along, but now, the NFL has finally acknowledged it. Dez caught it.
According to ESPN, the league's competition committee has reached a "unanimous" agreement that plays such as Dez Bryant's "no catch" in the 2014-2015 playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers would likely be ruled a catch in the future.
New York Giants owner John Mara admitted to ESPN on Tuesday that Bryant's play along with former Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson's no catch in 2010, has led the league to discuss rewriting the rule for the 2018 season.
"I think where we are unanimous," Mara told ESPN on Tuesday, "[are] plays like the Dez Bryant play in Green Bay, going to the ground, the Calvin Johnson play from a couple of years ago. I think all of us agree that those should be completions. So let's write the language to make them completions."
In the fourth quarter of the 26-21 loss in Green Bay, Bryant appeared to make a spectacular 31-yard catch on fourth down to give Dallas the ball a yard away from the go-ahead touchdown in the final minutes.
Replays showed Bryant bobbled the ball as he rolled into the end zone, with part of it touching the field. After reviewing the play, officials overturned the call, saying Bryant didn't maintain control all the way to the ground.
The current rule states:
"If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact by an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball throughout the process of contacting the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete."
It will be interesting to see if the NFL will rewrite the "going to the ground/making a football move" wording or remove it all together.
"The Jesse James play, I think should be a completion," Mara added, "but I'm not sure we're unanimous on that. But plays where guys seem to make the catch and then make a football move with it, I think most of us agree those should be completions. Now it's just a question of coming up with the right language."