NFL teaches officials to rule all 'bang-bang' passes incomplete 'when in doubt'
Dean Blandino, the league's VP of officiating, maintains the catch rule is still a good rule
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2 min read
Some good news in regards to the constantly confusing catch-rule emerged Monday: NFL officials finally received a simpler way to rule on passes that result in unclear outcomes. Some bad news, however, also surfaced: More incomplete passes might be coming this season.
As ESPN's Kevin Seifert reported on Monday, NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino teaches officials to rule passes incomplete whenever they're uncertain of how to apply the catch rule. Seifert sat in on Blandino's session with all 124 NFL game officials and survived to reveal how the NFL instructs its officials on the game's most controversial rule.
Apparently, all bang-bang plays should be ruled incomplete passes.
"When it's bang-bang," Blandino said on Friday, "rule it incomplete. When in doubt, make it incomplete."
The catch rule, which has been under fire for years now but has become a much more frequent target of criticism since the Dez Bryant incident in January 2015, underwent an update this offseason. In an attempt to clarify when a receiver becomes a runner, which occurs after the receiver gains control of the ball and touches down with two feet, the NFL added new language to the rule book:
A player has the ball long enough to become a runner when, after his second foot is on the ground, he is capable of avoiding or warding off impending contact of an opponent, tucking the ball away, turning up field, or taking additional steps.
The only issue with that change: It's still incredibly difficult for an official to determine if a receiver fulfills the criteria listed above in a matter of a split second. And by the sound it, when that happens, the NFL wants the officials to rule the play as an incomplete pass.
Blandino looked at some film with the officials -- specifically, controversial catches and non-catches from last year -- and walked them through the process. To sum up the film-review session, which Seifert covered in his article, Blandino's lasting point from the film session was that bang-bang plays should always be incomplete.
"Which one is the easier question to answer?" Blandino said. "Bang-bang or two steps? Bang-bang. That's why the rule is written that way. For you on the field. When it's bang-bang, rule it incomplete. When in doubt, make it incomplete. Then if we look at it on replay and it did appear the receiver had it long enough, then we change it and move on. Don't change how you're officiating these plays. Bang-bang is incomplete, and the time element allows us to be consistent on these bang-bang plays."
Despite the complexity of the rule, which seems to be a shared belief among players, coaches, and fans, Blandino maintained the rule is, in fact, a good rule. Even though he himself admitted just last week that the runner aspect of the rule is "gray."
"The biggest thing is we all have to be on the same page," Blandino said. "The rule is a good rule."
Something tells me he wasn't being sarcastic.
Wink of the CBS eye to ESPN's Kevin Seifert
