But you’re arguing that you don’t have to be on the ground to have caught the ball and had it count as a reception. In your thinking, a player could be in mid air, grab the ball, pull it to his chest for a split second, and then immediately drop it and that would be considered a catch because at SOME point during the…

So who gets to decide what “clear” means on any given play? Jeff Triplette? The whole point of the rule was so that we didn’t have to have the officials making judgement calls on what “clear” or “football move” meant. It really is perfectly analogous to the two-feet-in-bounds rule. It’s a layer of specificity the…

Um, I don’t agree that he secured it? And that’s the point? I don’t consider it secured (and neither does the NFL, apparently) until he’s finished falling and not using the ground to help him secure it.

You’re right that it wouldn’t lead to that many more LOST fumbles (most of them would be technically recovered right away or fumbled out of bounds). But what it would do is allow receivers to use the ground to help secure catches and how many ways do we need to give offenses a further advantage? I don’t really…

It’s adding ONE additional requirement which doesn’t seem like that obtuse of one at that. I guess you can argue you don’t like it because you want to see more catches and more fumbles. I don’t think there’s much sense in arguing a personal opinion like that. But I honestly don’t see why this is more onerous a rule…

I’m all for speeding up games. But I disagree that the rule doesn’t offer anything to better the sport. I mean the definition of a strike in MLB is incredibly specific in the rulebook but no umpire is ever really held to the standard of calling them by the letter of the rule. In the NFL they’ve decided to use replay…

I’ve said it in another comment, but I’m totally fine with the concept of letting the officials run the game like in soccer. But don’t kid yourself that it will somehow lead to LESS strife than a complicated rule book. You think any amount of training is going to lead to 100% right calls? These guys know the sport…

It makes perfect sense. You just described measuring things to analyze them. That’s, like, science. You’re saying you’d rather have the games decided by officials in real time the way baseball umpires call balls and strikes with impunity. And I totally respect that take, I just don’t believe it would somehow lead to…

They don’t trust their officials because they shouldn’t. People are dumb computers with a big ol’ piece of meat for a processor. Imagine if we let Angel Hernandez decide whether or not that was a TD. Tell me there would not be a billion white hot takes all over the soc med’s this morning.

I said it in another comment but I’ll repeat it: the alternative is to let the officials run the game as they see fit like in soccer with very little recourse if you don’t like their subjective call. You can make an argument for this (it speeds up the game, it relies on common sense, etc), but you know damn well the…

People need to forget the term “football move” ever existed. It was taken out of the rulebook years ago specifically because no one could agree what it meant.

Your thesis assumes that the Steelers are somehow more likable than the Patriots. Personally, when these two teams play I root for Bane to blow up the field but for Hines Ward to somehow not escape this time.

So forget about the plain for a second. What if this had happened in the middle of the end zone? Then you’re saying that it’s a TD as soon as it hits the receiver’s hands and that obviously doesn’t work.

I don’t get the hand wringing on this thing anymore. It’s actually a very clear rule and has been enforced perfectly consistently for years now. Every team has had it go against them on a big play at least once. You have to have control of the ball all the way to the ground. They put the rule in there exactly so there…

The other thing that sucks about real life banana peel slips is that they look WAY more hilarious in real life than in cartoons. Your foot doesn’t shoot out like an NFL punter as you fly in the air and land flat on your back. No no no. your foot slides directly out in front of you while your back foot stays planted,…

If you live in NYC you absolutely have slipped on a banana peel, and likely do with great regularity. The only thing worse than slipping on a banana peel is when you THINK you’ve slipped on a banana peel and look back to see it was actually a squished rat. Squished rats should be the official mascot of this shit hole.

This is...fine.

None bad points, to be sure, but aside from the concussion/CTE issue which is more or less relegated to football, don’t pretty much all of these points apply to all professional sports? NBA team owners are also horrible garbage monsters who extort municipalities into terrible arena deals and their league straight up…

I don’t drink coffee so I don’t have a dog in this fight, but it strikes me as a bit absurd to say the 10 minute process of filling the kettle, boiling water on the stove, retrieving the coffee (maybe even having to grind it?), operating the French press, and then CLEANING the french press, along with any other small…

Belichick pulled this exact same shit with LaGarrette Blount. Had him for a year, cut him loose to get signed by another team who goes on the hook for his guaranteed money, basically tells him to sulk his way into getting cut by the Steelers so they can claim him off waivers and get him for pennies on the dollar. It…