Dean Blandino, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, doesn’t think the league’s catch rule needs fixing.
Despite controversy after controversy, Blandino thinks the rule only needs to be tweaked – if that.
“We think that the rule is in a good place right now,” Blandino said on NFL Network Sunday, via NFL Media’s Kevin Patra. “I really feel it’s just communicating the rule and educating and showing video examples of what is and what isn’t a catch. There’s a subjective element to the rule so there’s always going to be those plays where we debate that subjective element. That’s just part of it. That goes for other calls that are made during the game — pass interference, offensive holding…
“Maybe there’s another tweak that maybe we can make in the rule to make it easier to understand. But I don’t anticipate any major changes.”
That’s all well and good, but the league itself isn’t even consistent in determining what is and isn’t a catch. How is this a catch while this one is not? There’s no consistency and no reliability, and you never know what ruling you’re going to get on any given play. Perhaps that’s simply because the rule hasn’t been clearly explained to officials and communicated poorly, or perhaps Blandino is wrong and the rule needs a long look.
