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mornelithe on 26 October 2014
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RolStoppable said:
mornelithe said:
Can someone clarify something for me. Gronk just caught a TD, had control when both feet were planted in the endzone, then as he was falling out of bounds, lost control. The TD stood, but Patriots announcers were saying it should've been called back.

Conversely, you see time and time again, an RB merely needs to break the plane with the ball, not even set foot in the EZ, and lose control, or toss it after they're sure they've broken the plane, and that counts as a TD. I guess it feels like those are two completely conflicting rules.

A completed catch requires the receiver to maintain control of the ball when he goes to the ground, i.e. through the entire process of the catch. It's similar to the fumble vs. incompleted pass ruling in the open field where a receiver must have possession of the ball long enough to make another move (so technically becomes a runner after getting both of his feet on the ground). If the ball appears to be caught, but it comes out immediately afterwards due to contact with a defender, it's usually ruled an incompleted pass rather than a fumble.

On the other hand, a runner already has possession of the ball by definition, so as soon as the ball breaks the plane of the endzone, the play ends. What happens afterwards becomes irrelevant.

Yeah that's how it was explained to me, I guess it just makes no sense, given as long as 2 feet touch the ground with control, and then you fly out of bounds, it's still a TD.  Just an odd rule.