No matter how much he doesn’t like it, Tom Brady will no longer be able to get a New England Patriots peon to handle his balls. That’s because the NFL announced a league-wide rule change Sunday morning forcing each team to turn over 24 game balls to the officials before the game.
The new rule specifically is noted under Rule 2, Section 2 of the NFL Rulebook. Previously teams only had to present 12 game balls to the officials and only have the other 12 back up balls available if the refs wanted to test them.
Two seasons ago the Patriots were busted for illegally deflating their footballs in the AFC Championship game. A game they won 45-7 over the Indianapolis Colts. The Patriots were fined $1 million and forfeited their 2016 first round draft pick and their fourth round pick in the 2017 draft. Brady was suspended for four games, but won his legal appeal and played every game of the 2015-16 season. A panel of federal judges reinstated Brady’s punishment over the offseason and, as of this writing, appealed it again. The results of that final appeal have not been released.
Both the flunkies Brady used to deflate the footballs were fired by the team.
NFL updates “catch rule” too
Confused at what the NFL officially thinks is a catch? This won’t help.
The league updated the rule to “remove some of the confusion,” but instead just created more.
Here’s the whole rule with the additions bolded.
ARTICLE 3. COMPLETED OR INTERCEPTED PASS. A player who makes a catch may advance the ball. A forward pass is complete (by the offense) or intercepted (by the defense) if a player, who is inbounds:
(a) secures control of the ball in his hands or arms prior to the ball touching the ground; and
(b) touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands; and
(c) maintains control of the ball after (a) and (b) have been fulfilled, until he has the ball long enough to clearly become a runner. A player has the ball long enough to become a runner when, after his second foot is on the ground, he is capable of avoiding or warding off impending contact of an opponent, tucking the ball away, turning up field, or taking additional steps (see 3-2-7-Item 2).
Note: If a player has control of the ball, a slight movement of the ball will not be considered a loss of possession. He must lose control of the ball in order to rule that there has been a loss of possession.
If the player loses the ball while simultaneously touching both feet or any part of his body to the ground, it is not a catch.
Now you may be reading that and think to yourself, doesn’t that change make toe-tap catches along the sidelines and the back of the end zone incomplete passes? The answer is, yes, because the people writing that rule don’t know how words work. Don’t expect toe-tap endzone and sideline catches to be called any different this season, though, because the refs aren’t that dumb. What we will see is more bolded additions to the rulebook next year talking about sidelines and toes.
Speaking of referees
There wasn’t much turnover in the official ranks this season. All 17 head referees will return from the 2015 season and all but one of the 122 total officials employed by the NFL last year will be back.
The NFL has also added three more officials to its roster, bringing the total to 124. The new guys are side judge Alan Eck and head linesman Jerod Phillips from the Big 12 and umpire Ramon George from Conference USA. Sarah Thomas, the only female official in the NFL, returns for her second season as a line judge.
Five officials will be designated “swing officials” and will move around games from week-to-week. You’ll be able to tell who they are from their checkered pants, butterfly-collard shirts and Eastern European accents.
Swinging foxes beware.
