NFL Teams Unanimously Approve Simplified Catch Rule

Why this matters here

NFL.com’s March 2018 report states that clubs unanimously approved a simplified catch rule requiring control, two feet (or another body part) in bounds, and a football move such as a third step or reach, while removing the former “going to the ground” requirement that shaped controversies like Dez Bryant’s. The Game We Think We Saw uses the revision to show that what viewers “saw” as a catch can diverge from the categories officials must apply—and that changing the language reclassifies similar movements without rewriting the past play. The source records the rule change; the book asks how authority of the whistle mediates perception when ordinary sight and rule categories separate.