Cowboys Head Coach Jason Garrett Calls For Change In 'Calvin Johnson Rule'
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett has a problem with the NFL's current definition of a catch, and not just because it robbed Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant of a pivotal completion in Dallas' playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers.
"I do think this play belongs in the game," Garrett said Wednesday at the owners meetings in Phoenix. "I do think we want plays like Calvin Johnson's play [in 2010] and Dez Bryant's play to be catches in our league, and I do believe any tweaks to the rule should be to include these plays, not to exclude these plays.
"To have the Cowboys inside the one-yard line at Lambeau Field with 4:45 to go, 47 years after Bart Starr had a quarterback sneak, I think is great for our game," Garrett continued. "And to have Aaron Rodgers standing on the other sideline waiting for his opportunity to come back, I think that's what we want. Dez Bryant getting three feet, four feet down, I think should be a catch in our league. I think we should find ways to make sure it is going forward."
Again, Garrett insisted he dislikes the rule because of what it costs the game of football, not just because of what it cost the Cowboys.
"That really has nothing to do with our game, what happened, our team," Garrett said. "It's about how we're trying to right this rule going forward."
The NFL competition committee considered the league's definition of a catch - also known as the "Calvin Johnson rule" - at the owners meetings this week, but the rule remains the same, aside from a slight tweak of the language.
"We looked at so much tape on that," New York Giants owner John Mara, a member of the committee, said Sunday. "We made a little tweak to the language, but it's really not going to change. It's not going to change the Dez Bryant play to a catch or any of the other ones.
"One of the issues is that the players today are so athletic and make such acrobatic catches that it makes it more challenging," Mara added. "If you push the line any further back and look at the tape on plays – again, we're sitting there in a room and there are nine of us, three coaches and some general managers, and half of the time we're split on whether it's a catch versus a non-catch, so I just thought that changing the language at this point was probably not the way to go."
