For some reason a number of people in the sports media have decided that the obviously bad call in the Lions Bears games from this past Sunday was correct in that it was to the letter of the rule. I disagree. The rule reads as follows:
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 after he touches 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.
I feel that he had established possession after he touched the ground. In fact his hand was out of bounds before the ball came dislodged. The biggest support for my belief is that everyone seems to believe that this is a bad rule. This means people think that the NFL deliberately made a bad rule. I believe that the problem is the interpretation of the rule not the rule itself. This rule was designed to look at diving catches where the receiver does not have a chance to establish two feet in bounds...at least that is how I remember this rule coming about.
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