As a citizen-legislator, I know very well how hard it is to pass a law. It shouldn’t be easy, but gosh, I sometimes wonder why it’s often so difficult. Still, it’s very rewarding to finally get a bill over the “goal line” and into statute.
Likewise, for rules. Rules are everywhere. Every organization has them, as do most families. My dad had a few rules, for instance. But he could change them as he wished—without a hearing, vote, study committee, amendment, or quorum.
Most organizations have rules which can usually be changed by processes somewhat more involved than those that governed my dad’s rulemaking—including the National Football League.
This brings us to football icon John Madden. While the late Hall-of-Fame coach is well known for the video gridiron game that bears his name, he also co-authored (with Dave Anderson) a best-selling book entitled One Knee Equals Two Feet (and Everything Else You Need To Know About Football).
The title referred to what constituted an NFL player being inbounds after making a catch. If one knee hit inbounds after a reception, then it was a catch. But each of a receiver’s two feet had to step inbounds for a reception to be a catch.
In college football, only a single foot needs to be inbounds for a good catch. That’s a much better rule.
The NFL requirement results in countless video reviews to determine whether or not both feet are inbounds. It takes up time in almost every game. It’s exhausting and unnecessary. Just adopt the college rule.
But nooooooo! (As John Belushi would say.) The NFL continues to stick with the One Knee Equals Two Feet rule. Adopting the college rule would result in more completions, fewer video reviews, and more scoring. But the NFL’s Grand Poobahs won’t “change the rule!”
(I don’t exactly know who these Grand Poobahs are, but they remind me of the ne’er-do-wells who sabotage the bills that I try to move through the New Hampshire House of Representatives!)
Anyway, as if things weren’t already bad enough, NFL officials sometimes STILL get it wrong after exhaustive video reviews—as when the Cincinnati Bengals were screwed out of a touchdown against the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs. Millions of fans watching replays on TV saw that Ja’Marr Chase clearly made an endzone catch for a TD that was overturned.
Even worse, think back to the Patriots’ epic loss to the Raiders in Las Vegas on December 18. (I know some of you have blotted it out of your memory. Sorry.) With the Pats leading the Raiders 24-17 with 32 seconds left, Las Vegas QB Derek Carr hit Keelan Cole in the back of the endzone for a TD. But upon further review, it was clear that Cole got neither a knee nor two feet inbounds after receiving the ball. While that was obvious to the millions watching on TV, the replay geniuses still ruled it a TD and the game was tied.
This, of course, set the stage for the zaniest ending in NFL history, when, with the clock already having run out, Patriots wide receiver Jakobi Meyers tried to throw the football back to QB Mac Jones. It was picked off by Chandler Jones who ran it 40 yards into the endzone for a 30-24 Vegas victory.
Anyway. Non-ne’er-do-well readers surely get my point. Enough with the One Knee Equals Two Feet NFL nonsense. Adopt the college one foot standard.
This change has been proposed year after year after year after year to the Grand Poobahs. But the rule stays the same.
Happy Ground Hog Day!
