Re: Down by contact.
I'll tell you where you all are not understanding the points being discussed.
"Coaches have been frustrated by the inadvertent whistles by officials for years. What the committee wants owners to consider is expanding replay to include "down by contact" plays. As the rule stands now, any time an official rules a player down by contact the play is dead, and can't be reviewed, even if it was an obvious fumble."
His use of 'down by contact' is misleading. DBC in general is the term used to determine when a player is down and cannot fumble anymore. In absence of an early whistle a play can, and often is, reviewable under current rules as long as the play and fumble wre allowed to continue. It is OFTEN that a whistle is blown that ends a play prematurely and renders the ensuing fumble invalid. My point is that officials should do a better job of letting plays move foward and always err on the side of the fumble becasue that is reviewable. Making a rule that will potentially create more room for player injury is a bad idea when the problem can be fixed with better performance.
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