NFL denies new catch standard was used in Super Bowl LII

ORLANDO, Fla. — NFL vice president of football operations Troy Vincent caused a bit of a stir, at least in New England, when he went on  "The Dan Patrick Show" earlier this week and hinted a new catch standard was used in Super Bowl LII, specifically on the Corey Clement touchdown.



Here's what Vincent said: "The old language read (if there’s) slight movement, then that means you’ve got to overturn it. … (Now) you can have movement, but you can still maintain control. We removed and got out of the business of slight movement. Because you can have movement but still be in control.

“The Clement play in the Super Bowl was the best example. The ball moved, but he had complete control over the ball through the process of the catch.”

The NFL's senior vice president of officiating Al Riveron was asked Wednesday at the league meetings if the league used a new catch standard in the Super Bowl.

"No, we did not," he said. "In order for us to overturn a call, we have to see clearly indisputable evidence. And there was some slight movement but we didn't see loss of control, we didn't see indisputable evidence that he did not have possession of the football."

Tom E. Curran followed up specifically on Vincent's comments and asked Riveron if there was a conversation before the game where the league said, "You know, let's let some stuff go from now on."

"No, there wasn't," Riveron said. "There was no conversation of we have to pull back and we have to rule differently. But remember, the rule did say slight movement of the football is allowed and that's exactly what you heard. And when you heard Gene (Steratore) come off (the conversation with the league) he said, and I'm paraphrasing now, 'Yes, the ball goes from here to here but he never loses control.'

"So there was slight movement and we have numerous occasions during the year when we had slight movement and we did not overturn it. And, again, did we have all angles possible? Yes, we did. And within those angles, we didn't find anything to make it pass slight movement, which is what the rule entailed."

BSJ analysis: Who's telling the truth here?

No matter what Vincent said or how he phrased things in the interview, the bottom line is this: Riveron is accurate when he says that the rule states that if there's slight movement but no loss of control.

Here's the rule from the 2017 rulebook:



It's right there in the note at the bottom.

Now, you can certainly make the point and say, "That's not how it was always officiated in every game." But you could also say that about a lot of points with the catch rule, which is how we got to this point where the catch rule was torn down, rebuilt and passed for 2018.

That being said, as far as I can tell in going through old rulebooks, it seems that note was put in for the 2011 season. So it's not like, say, in the past two years they added that language. Vincent seems to be saying that at some point recently they changed the rule, and we know that's not the case — it was six years ago.

Is that what he meant? Doubtful, but it's impossible to know.

The bottom line is Riveron's explanation holds water ... but it's shaky thanks to Vincent's loose lips. It's almost impossible to prove a new catch standard was applied, unless you have some sort of written smoking gun, like an e-mail.