Thanks; I still do not see much to change my mind. - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 26/09/2012 02:33:35 AM
However, here is a new rule for general life based on the call from the end of tonight's game: If you are holding your baby and I walk up and grab your baby, I own your baby.
Like I say, I REALLY want to see this play, because when you put it like that, that is actually true on a football field: If a player on one team takes a ball away from a player on the other before the whistle blows, forward progress is stopped; before the ball carrier is DOWN, the player who strips the ball gains possession. In the case of receivers stripping defenders that is doubly so, because when possession is contested, simultaneous possession goes to the RECEIVER (one of many football rules favoring the offense.)
So if that how it is actually went—the Packers DB did not take a knee, go out of bounds or otherwise end the play before stripped—yeah, that sounds like a TD.
The DB had possession first and then Golden Tate gained co-possession as they were coming down. The rule is that the ball goes to the passing team if they gain control simultaneously.... which they did not. Or at least, it appeared that way to me.
Tates left hand is between Jennings'; it is physically impossible for Jennings to catch the ball with both hands unless Tates left hand is on it, too. His right hand (though it is hard to see on the YouTube clip (try 0:57-5
) appears to me be over Jennings' right arm and on the ball. That is simultaneous possession. I am not even 100% certain any part of Jennings' body except his feet was on the ground AFTER the catch (and before Tate had sole possession,) which would make it a reg'lar ol' strip and whoever had it last had possession. That the catch began with both of Tates hands on the ball and ended with Jennings' on top of him trying (but failing) to pry it from his arms makes me pretty certain the call was correct.That clip makes me less certain Tate had his left hand on the ball the whole time Jennings was catching it (since it looks like his left hand was, at least at one point, below rather than between Jennings') but it is hard to be sure, and replay reversal requires "incontrovertible" evidence, not inconclusive. It is also hard to be sure from that clip Jennings was ever down even if he DID have sole possession, so Tate could still have legally stripped him even if he did NOT have simultaneous possession.
Had I been on the field, I would have made the same call, perforce; had I been in the replay booth, I also could not have overturned it.