Fair Catch Called... Pushed into the Return Man... Then a Change of Posession?

[Timmy Smith]

Complete bogus explanation by the NFL trying to cover their refs' asses.

Yep. Also, from WaPo: "The officials recommended that, because of all the confusion. . . . They just said, 'This is a challengeable call,' " Zorn said.

...talk about a completely screwed up situation -- the refs had no idea what had happened, called Carolina ball, then Washington ball, then Carolina ball... then told Zorn to challenge it. Ugh.

[Reaganaut]

From 2005 - called the other way in Pittsburgh

"OK, I'm watching the MNF game and when I saw Jeff Triplette was officiating a knew we were going to be in for some interesting calls. The worst one so far is the "fair catch interference" call that took the ball away from a Pittsburgh recovery of a muffed fair catch. Sproles' attempted fair catch bounced off his helmet and began going up and forward. Steeler Chidi Iwuoma went for the ball and recovered it. When I saw the replays, I thought Iwuoma's possession of the ball might have been challenged, but Triplette called fair catch interference. That's just bad refereeing."

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Check out this video about Fair Catch Interference and the "Right for the Receiver to Make the Fair Catch." This call made in the Skins game clearly goes against the right.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d812ea184&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true

[skinsince72]

The rule will stand unless Romo sits to pee or Brady start returning punts and the same thing happens, resulting in a broken fingernail by either of them.

Jones and Craft will write the rule change and personally fax it to the commisioner.

[Veretax]

If I were a Special Teams guru from now on I'd look to make a short kick, look for the fair catch signal and shove a player directly into the spot where the guy is fair catching the ball. Every time.

Apparently this is LEGAL in THE FRIGGING NFL!

Fair catch means the guy has to have two yards. End of story.

Not only is is a penalty to block a guy from behind, but you have to give two yards... or is that null if it's his own player. Why not just pick up the other player with three guys and throw him into the return man on every return?

Find some dimwit, grab him under both arms and throw him at the return man. That's the ticket.

Sounds like a winning strategy to me. WTF happened, can somebody please tell me how this is legal?

Actually if I recall correctly the pros don't have the same HALO rule that is in use in college. In the NFL they only have to allow the player to catch the ball, they can be standing within a foot of him practically as long as he can catch it.

I recall us scaring the crap out of a Cowboy returner back when Gibbs was still the coach.

[skinsince72]

I'll add this also, I can't believe it came down to a semi-questionable call to beat that Panthers team! Maybe if there were 10 questionable calls resulting in 21 points, then I could yell "robbed!!"

This game should have been put away in the 3rd quarter.

[Redskins Diehard]

Fair Catch

The member of the receiving team must raise one arm a full length above his head and wave it from side to side while kick is in flight. (Failure to give proper sign: receivers’ ball five yards behind spot of signal.) Note: It is legal for the receiver to shield his eyes from the sun by raising one hand no higher than the helmet.

No opponent may interfere with the fair catcher, the ball, or his path to the ball. Penalty: 15 yards from spot of foul and fair catch is awarded.

A player who signals for a fair catch is not required to catch the ball. However, if a player signals for a fair catch, he may not block or initiate contact with any player on the kicking team until the ball touches a player. Penalty: snap 15 yards.

If ball hits ground or is touched by member of kicking team in flight, fair catch signal is off and all rules for a kicked ball apply.

Any undue advance by a fair catch receiver is delay of game. No specific distance is specified for undue advance as ball is dead at spot of catch. If player comes to a reasonable stop, no penalty. For penalty, five yards.

If time expires while ball is in play and a fair catch is awarded, receiving team may choose to extend the period with one fair catch kick down. However, placekicker may not use tee.

Okay, now use your highlighter to find "2 yard cushion", or "halo" anywhere in that.

[Skinz248]

I'll add this also, I can't believe it came down to a semi-questionable call to beat that Panthers team! Maybe if there were 10 questionable calls resulting in 21 points, then I could yell "robbed!!"

This game should have been put away in the 3rd quarter.

Let's be real, we aren't the best team in the NFL. These are the bounces that we need to go our way in ANY AND ALL games in order to win. Sad, but true. I was LIVID at this bogus call.

[Long-Time-Fan]

The OP needs to give it up and the Admins need to close this thread.

That play didnt cost us the game (You can tell that to Trevor Mavich as well)

The game was over when the Deadskins took to the filed.

[Skinz248]

Okay, now use your highlighter to find "2 yard cushion", or "halo" anywhere in that.

Now use your highlighter to read what he said before you even tried to make him look dumb.

Oh, well that does change things... that's breaking the 2 foot rule isn't it?

(There's no two foot rule. I'm wrong.)

Still...

Definition: A player may not interfere with a punt returner's opportunity to catch the football after having signaled for a fair catch.

Examples:

The penalty for fair catch interference is 15 yards against the offending team.

Get real Redskins Diehard, that was a penalty and would require some MORE explanation. Why wouldn't every team do this on punts?

[JCHarpo]

I was at the game and they did not and would not show a replay until Zorn challenged and all of us kept screaming for interference but he refs said he only challenged whether or not a skins player touched the ball......we had no clue what was going on....the conferred 4 times and still f&*ked it up

[Phixius]

I could care less about the call, the Redskins were leading 17-2 in the 3rd.

[MontanaSkins]

Now use your highlighter to read what he said before you even tried to make him look dumb.

Get real Redskins Diehard, that was a penalty and would require some MORE explanation. Why wouldn't every team do this on punts?

Because other teams don't have players that allow themselves to get thrown around like that.

[chunks64]

Randle El needed to holler to get away and let the blocker have enough time to release from his man and get away. They didnt interfere with Randle Els chance to catch it, we did, so can't blame them.

The stupid part of that call was Jim "Best coach ever" Zorn deciding to challenge the call and burn one of our timeouts...what a bunch of idiots

[Evilskinzfan47]

You know,reading this thread i see alot of posts stating that it cost us the game.And yeah i suppose in the grand scheme of things that it did.However what really cost us the game was our inability to score points and the lack of yards.Less than 200 yards????Hell of an offense.

Now back on topic,i think this rule is crap.Sure westbrook wasent just standing there,however the carolina player latched onto him about 8 yards down field with the intention of throwing him.It was total crap.

[Burgold]

It was a horrific non call. One of the worst ref decisions I've seen in 28 years of watching the NFL. It goes against everything I have ever understood from watching and hearing explanations of a punt return.

The problem even wasn't that it was a blown call. It was several blown calls.

It was interference. The Carolina player was guilty of holding. It was impeding a fair catch. And a whole bunch more.

The only way you don't make this call is if you bet on the game.

[Reaganaut]

Now use your highlighter to read what he said before you even tried to make him look dumb.

Get real Redskins Diehard, that was a penalty and would require some MORE explanation. Why wouldn't every team do this on punts?

Thanks Skinz. Redskins Diehard isn't trying to understand anything. Just some dude who has been saving up this little nugget in his brain to roll it out and beat people over the head. Dennis Leary would have fun with him. We'll see how the league deals with this on Tuesday. I really don't care, but I bet they issue an apology.

[Renegade7]

The more I think about it, the more I feel Westbrook should've gotten as far away from ARE as possible when he knew it was a fair catch. Why the hell is he blocking when the other team isn't even allowed leggaly to touch the returner?

[Reaganaut]

It was a horrific non call. One of the worst ref decisions I've seen in 28 years of watching the NFL. It goes against everything I have ever understood from watching and hearing explanations of a punt return.

The problem even wasn't that it was a blown call. It was several blown calls.

It was interference. The Carolina player was guilty of holding. It was impeding a fair catch. And a whole bunch more.

The only way you don't make this call is if you bet on the game.

I agree. It definitely was interference. I don't get all the nerds here rolling out nuggets on the halo rule. If there's no halo, then how can anthing be called interference? Explain that people.

[MumboSauce]

That's just Turble.

[ginsu101]

When you watch good teams, once the punt returner signals fair catch, his teammates scatter. He is there all alone surrounded by the kicking team. What happens when you knock a a punter's blocker into the punter? It's not roughing the kicker. What happens when you knock a blocker into the QB? It's not roughing the passer. It was a tough break, and it broke my heart listening to the game. Thank goodnes my video feed stopped at that time.

[kobra860]

I could care less about the call, the Redskins were leading 17-2 in the 3rd.

This.

There was no excuse for us to lose. It shouldn't have come to this play.

[lucky*13]

if it happened to the patriots or steelers i guarantee this rule would be changed during the game by nfl hq.

Yup,thats what sucks..Years ago skins used to get those calls,but they were a good fb team way back when..good football team's get the breaks,bad teams don't..Also good teams win these kind of games regaurdless of a muffed punt return,its not like the redskins were playing a great team,it should not have come down to one bad play...

[Going Commando]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/redskinsinsider/referee-explains-call.html?wprss=redskinsinsider

Referee Explains Call

Referee Walt Coleman explains the punt-fumble call: "What happened was, the two guys were blocking each other. The Washington guy got blocked into his own man, so there was no interference. All we had to figure out who touched it first. If the Washington player is stationary and just standing there and not trying to block, then he can't do that. If they are both trying to block, then he can knock him into him. Because they were both engaged, then that's why there wasn't a foul or anything wrong with that play. If the Washington player is stationary and just standing there and the Carolina player had come down there and knocked him, then it would have been totally different."

That doesn't make it seem any less like horse****. The purpose of the fair-catch is to ensure that the punt returner can catch the damn ball. Why does it matter if an opposing player hits the return man himself or pushes a guy from the return team into him? Either way, both the intent and the outcome are the ****ing same!!

[SkinsJackpot]

Bs bs bs bs bs bs call!

[81+83+84=Posse]

Do you people really think this call cost the team the game? It didn't have anything to do with the fact that they had 198 yards of offense? Or the only two TD drives were 13 yards and 1 yard? I wasn't happy about the call either but face it, they did not play well enough to win the game.