Packers cornerback Sam Shields was covering Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant on his infamous overruled catch when their teams met in the playoffs. At the time, Shields said the ref made a good call in reversing the catch. Now Shields admits that’s not how he saw it.
Shields told ESPN that he believes Bryant did catch the ball, and he is surprised the Packers won their challenge of the play.
“It was a catch,” Shields said, “But the new rule and at the last minute what happened, that’s what the refs came up with. I never said he didn’t catch it. He made a helluva catch I was in great coverage. Like I said, it was good on good and he came up with the catch.”
Shields seems surprised that Bryant reaching for the goal line didn’t constitute a “football move” that would make it a catch.
“I did look back and I seen him reaching and I guess that’s when he didn’t control the ball as he was doing that,” Shields said.
What Shields doesn’t seem to realize is that the NFL rules say that when a player makes a catch as he’s going to the ground, he must maintain control, and Bryant didn’t. Under NFL rules, it wasn’t a catch. But the fact that even Shields thinks it was a catch shows just how convoluted the NFL’s rules are.
