NFL's Catch Rule Must Be Addressed as Super Bowl Caps Season-Long Disaster

No one knows what an NFL catch is; anyone who says otherwise is lying. The confusion leads to a worse product due to the constant questioning of such a simple act.

"I am just as lost as any fan or any player," former NFL wide receiver Andrew Hawkins said in 2016, per Sports Illustrated's Kalyn Kahler. "There is no real definition. It just doesn't make sense. You can't quantify it."

Not much has changed.

Instead of discussing where Super Bowl LII ranks among the event's greatest games, another yearslong narrative destroys the serenity of a splendidly played contest.

The Philadelphia Eagles won their first Super Bowl on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis by beating the New England Patriots 41-33. Two of the Eagles' touchdowns came into question, though. Both of the suspect catches appeared to be correctly called, yet the uncertainty of their validity places a black eye on the league.

Patriots fans will bellyache for years about how they were robbed of a chance to secure a sixth title. It doesn't matter. What matters is making a concerted effort to fix the problem.

There's no need to tweak the rule. Fans can't wait another year or two for a professional organization to get something right. A pass-happy league must be able to easily identify a catch.

As such, the catch rule must be rewritten from scratch to improve gameplay, and it must be done now. It takes precedence over everything else.

Before we go any further, let's establish the rule. The NFL writes: A forward pass is complete (by the offense) or intercepted (by the defense) if a player who is inbounds:

1. secures control of the ball in his hands or arms prior to the ball touching the ground; and
2. touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands; and
3. 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 upfield or taking additional steps.

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.

Further nuances have been added to what seems like a straightforward explanation. The most often cited is "surviving the ground."

The most obvious example came when the Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Patriots in Week 15 due, in part, to an overturned touchdown call. Tight end Jesse James didn't survive the ground on the play.

Comparisons came to the forefront during Zach Ertz's game-winning, 11-yard reception with two minutes, 21 seconds remaining.

The tight end dove toward the end zone, and the ball came loose when it made contact with the ground as it did with James. Even the NFL's UK division questioned whether Ertz completed the catch for a score:

There are two major differences in these seemingly similar situations.

First, Ertz clearly turned into a runner after securing the catch, while James was still in the act of making the catch before the ball hit the ground.

Second, Patriots defensive back Devin McCourty made contact with Ertz before he leaped toward the goal line. James remained untouched throughout the process.

Ertz completed the reception, turned to score, had his legs cut from under him and dove beyond the goal line before the ground played a factor.

"If they had overturned that, I don't know what would have happened in Philadelphia," he said after the game, per NBC Sports Philadelphia's Reuben Frank.

The final touchdown catch will receive the most attention, yet an earlier score doesn't hold up quite as well upon further inspection. Running back Corey Clement secured a gorgeous 22-yard pass from Super Bowl LII MVP Nick Foles during the Eagles' opening second-half drive.

Or so everyone thought. The NFL provided video of the reception:

Like Ertz's catch, two factors jump out.

First, the officials called the play a touchdown on the field. Second, the league's earlier footnote came into play: "...a slight movement of the ball will not be considered a loss of possession." The ball slightly moved after the running back got two feet down in the end zone, only to have his third step ever so slightly on the back line.

It shouldn't be this hard to understand, and Commissioner Roger Goodell understands the frustration.

"I'm not just somewhat concerned—I am concerned," Goodell said of the ambiguity of the catch rule during an interview with Fox Sports' Colin Cowherd last week.

"We just had five Hall of Fame receivers and several coaches come in just two weeks ago to focus on the catch, no-catch rule—how we bring clarity. And this is where the balance comes in. ... You want there to be clarity from an officiating standpoint, a coaching and player standpoint—they know what it is or isn't.

"And so they draft the rule, the Competition Committee looks at it, they bring it to the membership, and they want that clarity. I think here you might have clarity in a large element of it, but then it's not the rule that people really want."

The league's starting point will involve the call that came into play during its biggest event. A concerted effort will be made to better define a reception.

"One of our Hall of Fame receivers said it well to me when we looked at this a couple years ago: Fans want catches," Goodell said. "...It's particularly in the going to the ground that has created a lot of the confusion because it's a different rule when you're going to the ground than when you're on the sideline or the end zone. And I think that's what we're focusing on.

"The Competition Committee is going to be bringing this up in February and March, and I hope we'll be able to address this in a way that will bring more clarity and, frankly, more excitement to this."

Suggestions have been made throughout the years to simplify the process. Since survival through the ground is the most prominent talking point, an easy fix is to eradicate this interpretation. Looking back in history, Calvin Johnson (seen here), Dez Bryant (seen here), James and Ertz all should have scored, and not a single person would have complained (outside of the losing teams, of course).

Instead, the NFL's attempt to define an inherently subjective play only adds to the confusion. Most can understand what a catch is without needing a frame-by-frame breakdown.

"Common sense," former Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians said, per Kahler. "It wasn't a big problem 10 years ago."

Arians has always been considered old school, but what he said nearly two years ago still rings true. A more simplistic approach is the logical route.

The NFL has major issues to address: a growing social disconnect, sagging television ratings and player safety, to name a few. Yet this billion-dollar industry is built around a simple game played by world-class athletes.

Without the game, nothing else matters. The logistics of competition shouldn't be so difficult, and fans shouldn't walk away from every contest wondering about the officials' impact. Their increasing presence dilutes the product.

What is or isn't a catch strikes at the heart of the game, and the NFL can't allow overregulation to get in the way of the fans' experience. Otherwise, an already-shifting sports landscape can turn, even on the once-beloved NFL.

Brent Sobleski covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @brentsobleski.