speed

Dead yes, I still hate that rule. Doesn't change it that I hate it. It's a bail out for a QB to have another advantage.

As for officiating I never complain about it either way. Play better, take it out of the refs hands. Refs are scared to put their arms up for a touchdown and whatever happened to undisputable evidence to overturn a call. They review stuff and use their opinion on what they think they call looked like on the replay based on a faulty angle relative to the ball (not a straight down the line angle).

My answer for the rules commitee, if I owned a team (I'm only about 900 million short, so far), I would do everything possible to have someone on that commitee that helps shape the rules and then try to have the rules tailored towards how my team plays. If I was a smash mouth running team I try to have holding abolished.

upstater1

For MiChargers, look this Moss TD at the 4:20-4:30 mark.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1zR0EJ8mI8k

This is the play that caused many people to argue, including Casserly, that Moss commits OPI.

Pereira said the refs would be looking for OPI, and before the game it was noted by the announcers that the ref crew was going to be on the lookout, because the crew had that rep. Now, I'm fine with actual OPI being called leaguewide. But when the refs get one guy in their sights, something is wrong.

PatsFanSince74

I'm not here to defend every poster to this board. we do indeed have a few folks whose paranoia crosses the line from time to time, but i think we all have to remember the derivation of the word "fan." It's short for "fanatic."

No matter how rational some of might be in our day to day activities, we don't hold ourselves to the same standard when it comes to defending our team. We're fans. We try to be reasonable, but what fun would it be if we applied the same rules here that we applied to our work or investments? Pretty boring.

As for us pats fans in particular, we felt that we didn't get the respect we deserved after SB XXXVI. We went in as 14 point dogs and, even after we won, there were whispers that we were "lucky" or about the "tuck." After XXXVIII people lamented the botched kickoff that gave us field position as more luck. It was only after we won three out of four that people started to grudgingly give us our due.

so, i think we have a bit of a bunker mentality. in recent years, as fans watch their teams struggle to get to an SB, let alone win three of them, there has been a lot of resentment. bob kraft and scott pioli and bill belichick have broken the myth that teams in the post cap, free agency era are not only not supposed to win multiple Lombardis but they also aren't supposed to contend year after year after year. up until the last few years, it was possible for a fan to say, well, we can't keep the talent we need. the pats work under the same cap as everyone else, so there's a pool of resentment that leads to lots of negative stuff getting thrown at the team.

we probably forget how lucky we are and get too sensitive to it and so start to look for how the world is being unfair to us in response.

__________________
It is what it is. It wasn't what it wasn't.

speed

No offense, but

upstater1

A lot of people hate the rule. A committee was set up to change it. The committee came up with nothing because they realized you couldn't change the rule. Some things in life are just difficult to legislate. That's why the rule is there. Because no one has found of a better way to distinguish between the end of a pass and the beginning of a tuck.

Can you do it?

MiChargers

I got the point, but just because they know a "certain player" habitually violates a rule, doesnt make it illegitimate. Obviously, knowing the exact conversation before that game would have been very interesting, but sometimes things get "called out" in order for the refs to be aware of it. It would be similar if refs decided to penalize Denver for cut blocks, because that's what they're known for and teams complain all the time. Its legal right now, but if refs changed that rule, Denver fans would be in an uproar. I guess the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

speed

When the touches the non throwing hand, its live.

upstater1

You've got it all wrong. Unless the QB brings it into his body (i.e. tucks it) or re****s it, the pass is still in motion. This is what the rule literally states. Brady never re****ed it, Brady never tucked it. His other hand never touched the ball until after the defender made contact with him.

As I suspected, you don't have the rule down.

Not to mention the fact that the play would not even have taken place had not the tuck rule been invoked against the Patriots earlier in the season.

PATSNUTme

How many times have YOU "watched the video"? If you really watched the video and were the knowlegeable football fan that you claim to be, you would see the the "tuck call" should not have been called at all.

What should have been called was a 15 yard penalty on Woodson for a head slap on Brady BEFORE his arm came down on the ball. So, the ref blew the call. And a 15 yard penalty would have put the Patriots in a position to score a winning TD instead of kicking the game tieing FG.

Watch it again and tell me that I'm wrong.

FootballFan85

Where I think the tuck rule causes problems is in interpretation. Some people interpret the word "tuck" literally and some interpret it "practically".

Literally, the term means that the QB can stop their passing motion but a "forward motion" hasnt actually stopped until the QB actually TUCKS the ball into their body like a runner. In this case, the refs got it right. However, this is a completely impractical interpretation as no quarterback holds the ball that way unless theyre about to run. By this, a QB could stop their passing motion, hold the ball for any given ammount of time, have it knocked out and still not have fumbled, since they never "tucked" the ball.

The "practical" interpretation is that the rule protects the QB during the stopping of the passing motion. I.e. they move forward with the arm, decide not to pass and bring the ball down. The ball is protected while its coming DOWN. However, once thats done, its fiar game. This make sense, but this was not how the rule was interpreted.

That is why the tuck rule is troublesome. At least in my opinion.