For those of you who read Playmakers (thank you, if so) and/or who hang around here (thank you again, if so), you’ve seen one or more complaints from me about the worst rule in football.
It’s the fumble forward into and out of the end zone. The ball in such situations goes not to the offense at the spot of the fumble, but to the defense. And not at the spot of the fumble. On the 20.
It’s a vestige of outdated thinking about the sanctity of the end zone, from the days when it was much harder for the offense to get there. At one point, for example, an incomplete pass that landed in the end zone resulted in a touchback for the defense.
Teams rarely push for a change to this stupid rule, even after they’ve been burned by it. Or, perhaps more accurately, especially after they’ve been burned by it. There’s a mindset in league circles that, based on cockeyed notions of football karma, getting screwed by a screwy rule is simply the prologue to benefiting from it.
No one will benefit if/when the rule is applied in a Super Bowl, when millions of drive-by fans witness a nonsensical outcome.
Consider the outcome of a play last night that few saw happen live. With under two minutes to play in Carolina, Panthers quarterback Jake Luton threw a nifty little rainbow to running back Camerun Peoples, who ran a wheel route out of the backfield. Peoples caught it, got both feet down, and then reached the ball toward the goal line as he was going out of bounds.
As Peoples stuck the ball toward the goal line, he bobbled it. He didn’t regain possession before stepping over the sideline.
The ruling on the field was first and goal inside the one. Since fewer than two minutes remained in the game, the automatic replay process was activated.
After an extended look, referee Bill Vidovich announced that the ruling had been changed. Not to a touchdown, as the CBS booth had presumed it would be. Instead, it was determined that: (1) Peoples made the catch; (2) Peoples lost control of the ball while reaching for the goal line; (3) the ball crossed the front plane of the goal line after Peoples had lost control of it; and (4) Peoples failed to regain control of the ball before going out of bounds.
The result? Detroit ball at the 20.
Setting aside whether the video evidence was sufficiently “clear and obvious” to overturn the ruling on the field of first and goal inside the one (it absolutely wasn’t), the outcome further underscores what a horrible rule it is. It’s bad for the game, even if it invariably ends up being good for the team that gets the gift of an undeserved touchback.
Until the rule changes (and it will after the rule is applied in a Super Bowl), players need to be aware of the risk of sticking the ball toward the goal line. (Derek Carr once learned it the hard way — but then did it again anyway.)
The message is simple. Don’t stick the ball toward the goal line if there’s any chance you might lose control of it. If you do, the end result won’t be to start the next play from where you went down on offense, but to start the next play from the 20 on defense.
