Dez Bryant, Eric Lemus, and the Eight-Month Suffering that will Ensue

AP Photo/Matt Ludtke

Days later, I’m still replaying the catch in my head. The catch. CATCH.

If you know me on any level personally you know that I eat, breathe, and sleep Dallas Cowboys. Make no bones about it, I am one hundred and ninety-nine percent bias when it comes to professional football—that was still a catch. You can get every head of officiating at every level of football on every show on every network in America to tell me about “completing the process” and bring up Calvin Johnson’s 2010 attempt that brought this “rule” to the public forefront but that will not change the fact that it was a catch.

What bothers me most about those that bring up the Calvin Johnson Rule to corroborate the official’s decision to overturn the catch is that the CJR doesn’t even apply!

*Corroborate. Such an appropriate word. Makes it sound like official police business. Makes it sound like there was a crime committed. There was a crime committed.*

Back to my point…

Completing the process has to do with the receiver falling to the ground after he makes the initial grab. It has everything to do with the receiver maintaining control of the football as he forfeits his balance. And although it isn’t always practical, it makes some sense. I can understand the rationale behind not wanting to concede everything to the offensive player—even in a league intent on making defense obsolete. But think about how difficult it is to lose your balance in the air, get hit by a 220-lb man, hit the turf with the full force of your own body and the extra weight of your pads, and after all of that make sure that the ball does not move after you crash onto said turf.

That’s stupid.

Still, that rule has nothing to do with Dez Bryant’s catch on the 1-yard line. As soon as a receiver makes a “move common to the game” the CJR no longer applies. Remember the CJR has to do with maintaining control while at the same time losing balance. A “move common to the game” essentially signals that the receiver is cognitively attempting some sort of action. That cognition is assumed unachievable if the receiver is off balance.

Dez Bryant reached for the endzone. Dez Bryant always reaches for the extra yardage. That reach is considered a “move common to the game.” If you think for one second that Dez didn’t reach for that goal line and instead his arm just happened to extend due to the position of his body as he fell then you are not only wrong, you are probably being wrong just to spite.

I have no doubt that 88 made that catch. I also have no doubt that 12 on the opposing sideline was cooking and would have had the ball with over five minutes to go and a chance to win the game. Maybe the result would have been the same.

Regardless, WE were robbed.