After years of tweaking the rules, the NFL finally figured out how to properly define a catch. Now, the NFL has made a minor fix to something that was no longer broken.<\/p>\n
The NFL\u2019s \u201cback of the book\u201d rule-change process has introduced a tweak to the rule regarding the establishment of possession of the ball.<\/p>\n
It appears in the definition of a \u201cfootball move,\u201d which is specifically referred to in the rulebook as \u201cany act common to the game.\u201d As of last year, that term was followed by several examples: \u201ctuck the ball away, extend it forward, take an additional step, turn upfield, or avoid or ward off an opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, it has changed. The examples of performing \u201cany act common to the game\u201d now read like this: \u201cextend the ball forward, take an additional step, tuck the ball away and turn upfield, or avoid or ward off an opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s subtle, but it\u2019s unmistakable. Before 2005 a \u201cfootball move\u201d could be accomplished by tucking the ball away or turning upfield. Now, it happens only if the player both tucks the ball away and turns upfield.<\/p>\n
It basically combines two football moves into one. Which means it\u2019s no longer enough to tuck the ball away or turn upfield. Both must be accomplished to constitute a football move.<\/p>\n
What will it mean during games? Who knows? For now, all we know is that the rule, for whatever reason, was quietly \u2014 but clearly \u2014 revised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years of tweaking the rules, the NFL finally figured out how to properly define a catch. Now,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-139098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}