Browns fans... (1 Viewer)

[Steve Clark]

Talked to a referee I know today who saw the play and in his opinion it WAS a catch. He stated that time is not important in determining whether or not it is a catch and that the ball coming loose prior to or upon hitting the ground is also not important. What is important is that both feet are on the ground in bounds, the ball is not being bobbled (which it was not), and that the ball is held firmly between the hand(s) and the body (which it was). The play meets all the criteria listed which means it was a catch and the play should not have been overruled.

 

[Shayne Judge]

I agree that it was clearly a catch and there wasnt enough evidence to overturn the play. To me, the NFL refs are the worst in the major pro sports.

 

[McPaul]

too bad it wasn't "steak knife day" at the stadium.

I didn't see it as I was watching the fox national game at the same time. What I saw on the hilight reel wasn't enough for me to say either way, but if they say it was before the snap, that they pushed the buzzer, then it was before the snap. That kind of action will happen when they have to challenge it before the snap of the next play. Teams will rush the play, while the challenging team (or replay official) will watch the replay to be sure they need to review it, and you will have a lot of situations where both actions happen at the same time. As far as the play goes, if he didn't have control, and that fact was CLEAR enough to overturn it, then they made the right call, albeit controversial. Again, I didn't see the game as it happened.

Instead of giving officials only the chance to overturn in the last 2 minutes of a half, why not give each team one more challenge per half in addition to the (2?) per half they normally get, and have this challenge only be allowed to be used in the last 2 mins of each half. If the team wants to challenge the play, let them.

If Jacksonville didn't want to challenge this play (and I didn't hear them complaining too much about it) then the play wouldn't have been overturned, and this would avoid needless challenges in the game.

Just a thought.

 

[Samuel Des]

Bill Parcels made a good comment about coach challenges. If you're going to have it, why take it away for the last two minutes when the game may be on the line?

 

[Mike Broadman]

Yeah, I don't get that rule either. My only guess is that they're afraid of coaches using challenges willy-nilly in the final two minutes. But I don't even see the problem with that. I mean, if they can use timeouts whenever they want, then they should be able to use challenges, which will count as a timeout if it's used incorrectly.

I call the replay refs that call for challenges in the final two minutes the Syndicate, a la X-Files. Here you have a lovely football game going on, and then some mysterious forces from high up on some booth alter the course of the game.

 

[Frank_W]

Talked to a referee I know today who saw the play and in his opinion it WAS a catch.

Well, I guess then it was a catch because your REF can't be wrong.
Getting back to the topic ...
Again, a blown call is not an excuse for fans to act like total idiots.
Which of course the fans in New Orleans failed
to get the night after. I mean who watches this and
says to themselves the next day at another game that
this is a 'cool thing for me to do'?
I can understand being pissed off at a blown call etc., I mean
what sports fan hasn't? Yet, there is a huge difference between saying
what you would like to do to the refs and actually trying to do it.

 

[MikeM]

Bill Parcels made a good comment about coach challenges. If you're going to have it, why take it away for the last two minutes when the game may be on the line?

Easy, that's because each team has a maximum of two challenges per game, that's it. Even if you win both challenges, if the game was on the line, and you've already challenged two plays, then you have the potential of a game being decided on a bad call.

Also, if you're out of time outs, you can't challenge. So if your team is matching toward the goal line in the 4th (or 2nd quarter) and you're out of time outs, and there's a disputed call, the officials have the right to review any play within the last 2 mins. Otherwise, again, a game could end on a disputed play.

Look no further than in December 1998, when the Jets edged the Seahawks, 32-31. Vinny Testaverde was credited with a five-yard touchdown run on a fourth-down play with 20 seconds left even though replays clearly showed Testaverde's knee going down at the 1 before he extended the ball to the goal line. The loss essentially knocked the Seahawks out of the postseason race.

That's why the rule is there.

 

[Rob Willey]

I thought it was a catch too and couldn't understand all of the sports anchors saying it was clearly incomplete. But the refs by any definition botched the replay allowing it after another play.
That said, nothing excuses the behavior of the fans no matter how badly (they thought) their team got screwed or how long it took to sort things out!
The only thing worse was the nauseating display by Policy and Lerner afterwards alibi'ing and downplaying the fans' behavior.
Policy's backpedalling the next day was pathetic as well. "I didn't get the job done" falls far short of "I was wrong. I'm sorry."
Rob

 

[AdrianJ]

Anybody catch the fallout of this incident?

Beer sales will stop at NFL games after the third quarter, beginning this weekend, per a memo sent by the league to all its teams.

Several NFL teams already stop sales after the third quarter. But now, according to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, the league is mandating that all teams abide by the rule.

Also, teams are being encouraged to stop selling drinks in plastic bottles in the wake of two incidents last weekend. Fans in both Cleveland and New Orleans littered the field with bottles following disputed calls. The league has stopped short of ordering teams to stop selling drinks in plastic bottles.

The Rams, who were the visiting team during the incident in New Orleans, banned the sale of bottled beer at home for the rest of the season.

"We will not dispense the beer bottles," Bob Wallace, the team's senior vice president for administration, said Tuesday. "We will pour the beer into a cup."

Giants Stadium followed with a similar ban.

It's sad the effects of a few stupid people.