New season, new method of losing

The Detroit Lions started off the 2010 NFL season like they ended the 2009 season--with a loss. There was a significant difference, however, in the manner of their defeat.

Wide Receiver Calvin "Megatron" Johnson had caught an apparent 25 yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Shaun Hill with 18 seconds left to take a 20-19 lead over the Chicago Bears when one official overruled the referee closest to the catch and ruled that it was an incomplete pass.

The reasoning for the ruling was elucidated by referee Gene Steratore after the game.

"We're talking now about the process of the catch. He's catching the football, as he goes to the ground, he must maintain possession of the ball throughout the entire process. So as he continues to fall if he fell with two feet and his elbow hit the ground and came out, it would be incomplete."

Steratore added further."...the process was not finished until he finished that roll and the entire process of the catch."

From a rules standpoint, the correct call was made. The referees only act in accordance with the rules set down. Thus the official who overruled the other was correct in doing so.

But this incident only highlights the increasingly burdening of the game of football by restrictive rules that are borne from the minds of lawyers and not of people who spent their lives in the game of football.That is a damn shame for football is supposed to be fun.

I suppose such a thing was inevitable considering how much money is in the NFL. When you consider the huge amounts of money spent on the game by advertisers, teams, ands fans, it seems logical for the NFL to have rules that eliminate any grey areas.

But after watching the debacle in Chicago, I have become convinced that in their effort to ease the decision making process for the referees the NFL is losing its grasp on common sense.

Historically, a catch was defined as maintaining possession with both feet on the ground and/or keeping the ball after hitting the ball. Now the rules stipulate that you have to keep possession BEYOND these simple guidelines as part of a the catching process.

What makes this problematic is that Johnson's catch occurred in the end zone. Anyone who follows the game knows that all you have to do is break the plane with the ball.If the ball is knocked from the ball carriers hands AFTER the ball breaks the plane, the touchdown still counts for the play is dead.

Johnson caught the ball with both feet inbounds, falls with his hand hitting the ground before the ball in his other hand does.The ball only comes loose as Johnson pushes himself up to celebrate what he thought was the game winning catch.

Alas, the excessive requirement for a catch ruined what should have been a terrific ending to what was a poorly played football game. The NFL through the application of such absurd rules has sullied the game.They made it more like the courts of law than the fields of play. A lustily boo to the NFL for doing that.