OT: Why I Hate The NFL

Submitted by Robbie Moore on
Only in the NFL is Calvin Johnson's touchdown catch not a catch. Two hands on the ball. Both feet down. Lands on his elbow. All while maintaining possession. And clearly, ahem, having broken the plane. And yet, the NFL, in its over codified, lawyer like wisdom, says that isn't a catch. What's Johnson supposed to do, take the ball to dinner? I'll keep my emotional investments to college football where I have some reasonable expectation of winning or losing based on common sense.

TheOracle6

September 12th, 2010 at 9:07 PM ^

There are a lot of reasons that college football is better then pro football.  The biggest reason for me is that 95 percent of college football players do not make it to the next level, they are playing for the love of the game.  While in the NFL there is a significant percentage of players who are all about themselves, could care less if they win or lose, jus as long as they get their game check.  There is no way any player in the league is worth a million a game, and that's where we're headed, which is absolute crap.  Yet all the fans get for paying their salaries is continually rising ticket prices and a possible work stoppage over MONEY. 

tricks574

September 12th, 2010 at 9:20 PM ^

If some ref didn't need to feel like a big man and enforce a stupid technicality to nullify what everyone knows was a catch. I understand why they need that rule, but it wasn't put in to be enforced in that situation, and officials need to understand that and adjust accordingly.

Trepps

September 12th, 2010 at 10:04 PM ^

that is ridiculous.  Did you see the play?  He had the ball, two feet down, hip was down, other arm was down and he had control the whole time.  How long do you have to hold onto the frickin ball?  Do you have to make the refs pry the ball out of your hands? 

This has to be the most idiotic rule ever.

BlueVoix

September 12th, 2010 at 9:15 PM ^

That may all be true, but now the Lions are one game up on the Bears for the first pick of next year's draft.  And as a Bears fan, I'm very disappointed.

MichFan1997

September 12th, 2010 at 9:18 PM ^

is in Michigan. No question. But I'm not going to fool myself. I love the Lions. And what happened today was a fucking crime against football.

DETROIT WON THAT BALLGAME TODAY. Period.

bronxblue

September 12th, 2010 at 9:19 PM ^

That was an incredibly poor call, but wasn't it just yesterday that the refs missed an obvious fumble at the one?  To me, this thread should be titled "Why I hate bad referees"

indyeagle

September 12th, 2010 at 9:36 PM ^

detnews.com post game interview with the game ref:

Q: He was on his behind before he rolled over. If he stayed on his behind, would it have been a touchdown?

A: No. We don't play with the two feet or one knee or anything of that scenario. 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.

Q: It looked like he had the ball up in one hand while on his rear end, but there was continuation?

A: Well, the process was not finished until he finished that roll and the entire process of that catch.

Deep Under Cover

September 12th, 2010 at 9:55 PM ^

Bo stated best why I dislike the NFL and why I love college ball:

The Team, The Team, The Team, and if we think that way, all of us, everything that you do, you take into consideration what effect does it have on my Team? Because you can go into professional football, you can go anywhere you want to play after you leave here. You will never play for a Team again. You'll play for a contract. You'll play for this. You'll play for that. You'll play for everything except the team, and think what a great thing it is to be a part of something that is, The Team.

Listening to Molk and Robinson in interviews, I gotta believe those guys play that speech on a loop when they sleep at night.

bluesouth

September 12th, 2010 at 9:55 PM ^

fan but since I can only get their games when they play a local team or Thanksgiving.  I pretty much stopped watching the NFL.  The product is not worth squat anymore.  I could get excited about Chris Joohnson or Calvin, or some of the other new young talent but NCAA football gives me my fix until next Sat.   

Blue since birth

September 12th, 2010 at 10:38 PM ^

It's not just the NFL.

All team based pro sports are bullshit as far as I'm concened. I haven't followed any of them since the Bad Boys as a kid. It's much worse now then it was two decades ago~ when I got fed up.

The "rivalries" are hollow (most of the players couldn't care less) and the only loyalty is to your ego and check.

... I couldn't even find the new rankings today on ESPN with all of the NFL garbage.

mooseman

September 12th, 2010 at 11:16 PM ^

If he decides to do something like, say spin the ball as he's coming off the ground, does this count as some intentional "second move" kind of thing that magically completes "the process"?

kurpit

September 12th, 2010 at 11:37 PM ^

the NFL is bad for a number of reasons.

somebody correct me if i'm wrong but this rule is something that just got implemented this year.  so, why?  what spurred them to think that the way a completion had been called for years prior was wrong?

they put this rule into play and it takes less than one week to have everybody realize that this is an awful rule.

WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU MAKE THIS A RULE AND NOT REVISE THE OVERTIME SYSTEM!?

kaycone

September 13th, 2010 at 12:17 AM ^

This was a perfect scenario for  them to showcase this call. Much like the head-to-head contact call in Northwesterns first game. Im tired of professional sports. I've never really liked MLB, I jumped off the NBA bandwagon in the early 2000s hoping it would get back to the old days of ball, and now the NFL gives me a reason not to watch them. Still like NHL though!! GO RED WINGS!!!

SysMark

September 12th, 2010 at 11:55 PM ^

That call was beyond ridiculous.  Regardless of what that kind of rule says, exercise reasonable judgement - it was obvious to any casual observer that he scored the touchdown two strides before he dropped it.  If he had intentionally spiked it at that point they would have ruled it a touchdown.