For the love of logic, put the touch back in touchdown
It’s a contact sport. Yet players can score without contacting the end zone. Why is that?
News Desk: ‘The roughest officiating all season’ (The Athletic). See below.
All of these plays were ruled touchdowns. Yet never did the ball or ball carrier touch the end zone. Since 2020, fans have witnessed this more than 350 times.
Clockwise from top left: NBC Sports, Fox Sports, CBS Sports. Fox Sports
Airspace touchdowns 1) occur too often (almost 1 in every 4 games), 2) are farcical to watch, and 3) diminish the game we love. Fans deserve better.
Fix the Rule News: A forehead-slapper in college FB
In addition to the two new airspace touchdown entries provided during the NFL’s Week 15, we were left slack-jawed by a ruling in college football.
In the Dec. 13 Celebration Bowl, the HBCU national title game between South Carolina State and Prairie View A&M, we witnessed a truly bizarre ruling. In addition to the condensed clip displayed here, our Week 15 recap incudes a bonus College category, and there we also feature a four-minute segment where announcers dispute the call until it is somehow upheld. How anyone could have ruled the play a score, and then uphold the ruling, is astonishing.
“That championship-deciding review is the roughest officiating I’ve seen all season,” wrote Jason Kirk of The Athletic. “I didn’t see any angle where it looked like Tyler Smith had been able to get that ball inside the pylon. Alas.”
Want more mind-jarring evidence of the crazy impact the break-the-plane rule has on football? See George Kittle classic pylon poke in Week 10, or view our assortment of compilation clips in our site’s Film Room. We think it will become clear why we call it The Ugly Theater. Thanks for visiting.
Video and game image: Fox Sports
What if break-the-plane logic was applied to other games?
Hole in one
The ball is clearly breaking the plane of the cup, so it’s in. Put me down for an ace.
Home run
Who cares if the ball is in the glove? It broke the fence’s plane on the fly.
Bucket
Your corner three rimmed out? Easy. It dipped below the rim, so it’s good.
Cornhole
That bag is breaking the plane of the hole. We’ll take three points.
Ringer
Look, the shoe is breaking the plane of the stake. Three points for me.
Inside Fix the Rule
In brief
What we’re up to, in as few words as we can manage.
Concept
Learn about the Super Bowl touchdown that lit our inquisitive fuse.
New rule
Few rules are perfect, but we say our idea is better than the existing rule.
Pylons
What exactly are these orange foam antennae intended to do?
Ratings
Not all ATDs are equal. The ugliest of them earn The Full McEnroe.