It’s quiet time in the NFL. Everyone knows that.
But the quiet only applies to breaking news (unless the Texans decide to randomly fire someone else and not replace him in the next few weeks).
It’s never hard to generate a conversation that morphs into an argument that slips into name-calling and finally devolves into a wild speculation about the circumstances under which a person was conceived.
You can rank the Top 40 quarterbacks in the NFL for instance. That may get some conversation started.
Or, you can simply post a picture on social media of one of the all-time great catches in Super Bowl history and then let nature take its course.
That’s what happened when my Twitter buddy Dov Kleiman posted a quick video of Julio Jones’ amazing sideline catch in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 51.
New England Patriots
The coverage from Patriots corner Eric Rowe couldn’t have been better. The placement of the ball by Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan — probably nine feet in the air, moving at high speed and over the boundary — was pinpoint. And the catch had four elements — the leap/extension, the securing, the toe tap and the collision with the ground.
It put Atlanta in position for the game-securing field goal. (Spoiler: That didn’t happen.)
The Jones catch was as good as it gets.
But was it better than Julian Edelman’s catch which came a little more than two minutes later?
It wasn’t long before someone replied to Dov with the contention that it wasn’t.
Like Jones’ catch, Edelman’s had multiple elements.
The hash marks on an NFL field are 18 feet, six inches apart. Edelman is in the air above the right hash when the ball is tipped. He lands, gathers momentum, takes a sidestep and dives fully extended in the time the ball takes to drop to the ground, probably covering at least 10 feet. He wrestles the ball from a trio of Falcons defensive backs then — with the ball inches above the ground — releases it so he can secure his grip better.
And it put the Patriots in position to continue a drive for the game-tying touchdown. (Spoiler 2.0: Happened.)
Which is the better catch?
Jones’ was the more gracefully classic NFL catch, up there with Santonio Holmes’ Super Bowl-winning catch in 2008 in degree of difficulty. If it were Edelman on the receiving end of that throw and not Jones, I don’t think Edelman would have made it.
But Edelman’s was the more improbable and bizarre catch. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a catch quite like it and that’s taking into account the Jermaine Kearse quintuple-touch catch near the end of SB49, Antonio Freeman’s “He did what?!” catch on Monday Night Football and myriad other double-tip catches.
Edelman covered an insane amount of ground and only someone with the rarest of short-area quickness could have done what he did. Jones might have caught Brady’s pass outright but I don’t think he would have caught it after it was tipped as Edelman did.
State your case for which catch was better. Show your work.
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