Report: The NFL has a six-person catch committee

The NFL’s new committee that will attempt to clear up what is and is not a catch is beginning to take shape.

SI Wire | Dec 11, 2015

Report: The NFL has a six-person catch committee /

The NFL’s new committee that will attempt to clear up what is and is not a catch is beginning to take shape.

The catch committee, which commissioner Roger Goodell said he’d be forming last Wednesday, will be made up of six members, according to Jarrett Bell of USA Today.

Former coaches Ken Whisenhunt, Jim Schwartz and Joe Philbin, along with former general manager Bill Polian, former wide receiver James Thrash and former referee Tom Finken will all work together to review the current rules constituting what is a catch.

• PERLOFF: Why the ambiguity on catch rules is good for the NFL

In addition, Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant, who famously had a crucial catch overturned in last year’s playoffs, has volunteered to help out the six-man committee, NFL vice president of officiating Dean BlandinotoldUSA Today.

“He cares,” Blandinosaid. “It’s important to him. We definitely want to hear from him.”

The committee will meet during the off-season in hopes of re-defining the current catch rule.

“We want to be able to understand better how we actually define how long they have to keep possession of the ball, and that’s really the key issue and sometimes people disagree with the rule, but a lot of the time, the officials have it correct,” Goodell said on SiriusXM NFL Radio on Friday morning. “So we have to get that where it’s consistently done and it’s consistently understood.”

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