1) Catch with possession inbounds [check]
2) 2 (or more) feet down [check]
3) Complete possession through his fall [Nope]

He clearly hits the ball off of the ground and loses it as he completes the catch. It was not the fact that he dropped it when he got up, the ball was clearly pressed against his hand by THE GROUND then it pops out.

Then he drops it before he ever finishes falling…

The proof is here:

http://www.nowpublic.com/sports/calvin-johnson-denied-touchdown-week-1-2010

It was one continuous motion. He came to the ground twisting and the ball hit at the end of it. He didn’t go down, sit there, pick his nose, think about what he was going to have for dinner, turn over and get back up. It was a twisting, continuous motion, and at the end the ball came out.

(And let’s not forget he made a move to re-collect the ball after it came out. If he was really just setting it down, he wouldn’t have done that)

Even though it should have been a catch, even the bad, bad, bad, awful rules that should have been removed from the game an hour after the super bowl ended have to be followed. It followed the rule.

Now it’s time to get rid of it. Maybe the lockout will give them extra time to do this.

Can you say “FIXED” anyone?

but catching the ball, clearly having possession, 2 feet down, the side of your leg and arse cheek hit the ground…and somehow thats not “maintaining possession to the ground” and NOT A TOUCHDOWN

yes I agree, you have to maintain possession to the ground, but what makes Calvin’s case so ridiculous is the simple fact he had hit the ground, literally rolled on his arse and then the ball came out…

when is “to the ground” really “to the ground” should be the question. I mean you have these intricate replays on a player running with the ball, his knee cap grazing the turf one instant before the ball gets ripped out by a defender, but its not a fumble because the player was “down by contact”…however calvin catches a ball, 2 feet, a leg, and arse cheek down, no defender is the cause of the ball coming out, the GROUND is what caused it, and its not a catch????

once a player has possession, and has his feet down it should be a catch, if he’s falling, just like with every other circumstance, once a knee or elbow touches any sort of blade of grass, and a defender has touched the player during that process…the player is DOWN BY CONTACT. if the player is in the endzone, the split second when that players knee/elbow/arse/etc hits the ground its a touchdown…

HOW IS THAT DIFFICULT NFL?!?!?

again…my issue is more with the interpretation than anything else, because as the rule stands, i interpret that as being a catch.

I think this is simply another rule, just like many of the new objectionable hit calls, where the NFL can have so much grey area with the rules, they can call whatever they want and still make a case for making the right call. See too much of it now.

Makes me seriously wonder if Vegas is running the NFL, just like came out in many other sports over the years. Sounds funny, but it really wouldn’t take much if you already have the rules set up to control games. All you’d need after that is a ref here and there mixed with a coach or coaching assistant to call the right plays at the right time and, viola, game rigged. Not saying it is, but holding onto rules consistently that have so much grey area which allows them to control games, if they want, sure makes a person wonder.

That’s why there are rules that don’t make sense.

(IE. The Tuck Rule)

Calvin Johnson did, IN FACT, have possession of the ball when he hit the ground.

So when i read “the play will still be incomplete,” and “If you read the rule, it’s not a catch,” “The reason it’s not a catch is you’ve got to control the ball when you hit the ground.”

It kinda makes me feel like Im Charlie Sheen.

I am not a Lions fan, I have nothing against the Bears, its just one of those total BS calls no matter how they try to rationalize it, makes you wonder about the integrity of the game.

What bothered me, though, is that he caught another scoring pass a game or two later and almost immediately flipped the ball to a ref as if to say, “I’m going to keep doing it my way, no matter how you want to rule it.”

It made me wonder why they didn’t take that touchdown catch away as well.

If I were a defensive player, I would simply try to knock the ball out of a receiver’s hands after the conclusion of every touch down catch, and when it wasn’t ruled a “fumble” I would cry to the refs about the other guy not “maintaining full possession until next bye week,” or whenever the hell the refs are finally satisfied!

This is insanity! Where does it end?

If ten of us guys are sitting in a bar, and all ten of agree it’s a catch… then it’s a catch. I’m sorry is some mamby-pamby in an upstairs replay booth sees it differently.

If that type of catch is made by a small market team (CIN, BUF, MIN, DET, CLE, HOU, ect) versus a large market team (PIT, CHI, NYJ, NYG, NE, PHI, ect) it’s incomplete. Otherwise it’s a game winning TD.

Megatron clearly made a “2nd act” when he brought the ball to the ground – almost a spike while falling down.

Regardless of the 2nd act you just have to be flat out obtuse and hardheaded to look at that and say, “Yeah, there’s no way that should be a catch.”

But in the endzone, possession plus 2 feet (or knee, elbow, left buttock, etc.) should equal a TD. Play is over. Why give the defense an incentive to deck a player in the endzone after possession is established? Should the receiver now be thinking about the quickest way out of bounds when he catches a TD?

Greg Jennings was robbed the year before in Chicago where he caught the ball and took like 4 steps in the endzone before getting hit (already out of the back of the endzone, mind you) and losing control of the ball and it was ruled incomplete because he didn’t “control the ball to the ground”. Thankfully, the Packers still won the game so it didn’t matter.

And it’s a weird coincidence that these are all taking place at Soldier Field. Jennings, Johnson, and I’m assuming they are talking about the Shields INT during the NFC Championship game.