How soon we all forget. Only a few years ago NFL fans were plagued by the question of what exactly is a catch. What we thought we saw with our own eyes was was wrong — according to the NFL. It was a national nightmare. No one knew if a catch would stand or not. Then the NFL came to its senses and simplified the catch rule. Sure, there are still some weird decisions, but the issue has been fixed for the most part. The league simply couldn’t have that, so now we have the new catch rule. It’s pass interference review.
The pass interference review was a reaction — or overreaction — to the infamously missed pass interference/blown call in the NFC title game between the Rams and the Saints. There were many ideas thrown around that would remediate the issue. The NFL seems to have picked the worst one.
Even though everyone was saying that the pass interference review would come back to only anger fans and confuse coaches, the NFL trudged onward. It was all fine in the beginning. It was fine only because referees — and the folks in New York helping out with reviews — simply refused to overturn missed pass interference calls. The burden of proof had to be so amazingly high that there wasn’t a challenge that could be overturned. If the call was missed on the field, it wasn’t changed on replay. Tough luck. Coaches adjusted and they knew that challenging for pass interference wasn’t a good investment when it came to their challenges and timeouts. There were some obvious missed calls — just google “Ravens Texans missed pass interference” — but that was life.
Then suddenly things changed. Some ticky-tack calls were being overturned — this happened in the Panthers-Saints a few weeks ago — and now we are exactly where we did not want to be. Pass interference reviews are nebulous. They are being reffed to a level where small plays are being overturned while other pass interference is being overlooked. Reviews are being broken down frame by frame and the intent of the rule is being lost. It’s the exact same issues we had with the catch rule a few years ago. Except, this time it’s totally worse because it’s a subjective penalty. Everyone knew — or thought they knew — what a catch was. No one really knows what’s pass interference unless it’s blatantly obvious.
So this is where we sit at Week 14 of one of the most exciting seasons in recent NFL history. We have storylines like Lamar Jackson, the crumbling Patriots dynasty, the rebirth of the Niners, and amazing playoff races in both leagues. We also sit here with the dark cloud of what important game will be decided by a pass interference review. If the league simply kept doing what it was doing early on in the year, it would make sense. They apparently didn’t want to do that. Now, “what’s a catch,” has turned into “what’s the burden of proof for pass interference?”