{"id":339544,"date":"2025-12-09T19:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/339544\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T19:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:29:08","slug":"if-jalen-hurts-had-the-ball-long-enough-to-fumble-it-isaiah-likely-had-it-long-enough-to-catch-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/339544\/","title":{"rendered":"If Jalen Hurts had the ball long enough to fumble it, Isaiah Likely had it long enough to catch it"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NFL\u2019s curious decision to overturn a touchdown reception<\/a> by Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely reintroduced needless confusion into the question of what a catch is, and what a catch isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Adding to that confusion, indirectly, was last night\u2019s failure to overturn the ruling on the field that Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts had possession of the ball long enough to fumble it. (It didn\u2019t matter to the outcome of the play, since the Chargers recovered the ball. But if it had trickled out of bounds, the ruling that Hurts had the ball long enough to fumble it would have determined which team was awarded possession.)<\/p>\n

The possession rule is virtually identical to the catch rule. From Rule 3, Section 1, Article 7 (Player Possession): \u201cTo gain possession of a loose ball that has been caught, intercepted, or recovered, a player (a) must have complete control of the ball with his hands or arms and (b) have both feet or any other part of his body, other than his hands, completely on the ground inbounds, and, after (a) and (b) have been fulfilled, clearly perform any act common to the game (e.g., extend the ball forward, take an additional step, tuck the ball away and turn upfield, or avoid or ward off an opponent). It is not necessary that he commit such an act, provided that he maintains control of the ball long enough to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch the play<\/a>. If Hurts possessed the ball long enough to fumble it, Likely had it long enough to catch it.<\/p>\n

Also, and as previously explained, if Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers had the ball long enough<\/a> to complete the process of catching it, Likely had it long enough to catch it. (It\u2019s impossible to reconcile the two rulings, and the NFL knows it.)<\/p>\n

Bottom line? It took the NFL years to create the impression that it has finally figured out what a catch is. In one fell swoop on a December afternoon in Baltimore, the league has thrown the entire question back into the \u201cwho the hell knows?\u201d category.<\/p>\n

Congratulations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL\u2019s curious decision to overturn a touchdown reception by Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely reintroduced needless confusion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-339544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339544","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=339544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}