With every touchdown being challenged this year I have seen a real problem with the officiating, specifically the way that the officials spot the ball on Challenges. The rule as it stands now is The spot of the ball is marked where the ball is located when the runners knee or elbow hits the ground. Without replay this rule is fine and makes perfect sense. Unfortunately with the rise of technology and the challenging of plays, this ruling in my opinion doesn't work anymore. The problem I have with this rule is, due to being able to challenge the call, the ball is marked when a player's knee is down even if he hasn't finished falling to the ground. To help better depict what I am trying to display. (I apologize in advance for the rudimentary drawings used) Note: the length of the lines are all the same. I merely just readjusted the angles. From this picture you can clearly see that marking the ball when a players knees are down when he hasn't come to a complete stop effects the placement of the ball. I understand why the rule is in place, but I am not sure I understand why, when it comes to challenging a play a players momentum doesn't come into play. Why are we freezing time to discover the spot of the ball before the player complete comes to a full stop. I have seen this happen on many touchdown plays this year. The play was originally a touchdown because the player fell into the end zone but was reversed because at the exact point where the player's knee was down the ball didn't cross the plane even though he didn't finish falling down. Does anyone else feel this way? Am I crazy?
I think you're probably crazy, rule makes perfect sense to me as is. If you mark it where the player comes to a stop, then players will be sliding and rolling all over the field with the ball.
I understand that players move the ball forward after they are on the ground and all that nonsense, but I think the way the challenges interpret the play is wrong. The best example is the Dion Lewis play this past week unfortunately I can't find the video anywhere.
The challenges interpret the play the same way the officials do on the field. Do you have an issue with the rule?
Although they are both interpretted the same way. When a ref makes a call on the spot of the ball live he isnt saying at the exact millisecond the runner was down by contacy where was the ball. The platyer continues to fall and the spot of the ball is chosen. I know the idea sounds asinine buy try to wrap your head around the concept. Hopefully i can find a video of the instance soon.
The refs are supposed to put the ball where it was when his knee went down and they make every attempt to do so. The rule is the same during the play and on the review. I'm not sure what the complaint is....
