Down by contact.

[offiss]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

The down by contact rule makes total sense. The problem is that the refs are too moronic and stuck in their ways to enforce the rule appropriately. There are way too many of them blowing whistles when they should let the play come to an obvious end before blowing the whistle. If they could be trusted not to negate at least one fumble a game this way then the NFL wouldn't need to enact some rule that might blow up in their faces.

What you have to understand about the DBC rule FRPLG is that it's not caused by an early whistle it's a judgement call by the referee on when he want's the play stopped. In other word's he's given the ability to essentially control the outcome of a game by whom he award's the ball to anytime something happen's that he may not like he can stop the play and say down by contact. As well he can blow the whistle after a turnover and and stop the play and because he stopped the play can overturn the turnover, if they take away the ability to do that the only way to overturn a big play is if he actually blow's the whistle to soon which is a common misconception, because when you watch the replay's with full audio most of the time the ref's are pretty good at making sure the play is fully over before blowing the whistle, and even if they blow the whistle prematuraly if it's deemed that the ball came out before the whistle the recovery should stand, advancement of the ball should be disallowed but taking away turnovers can break a team and change the outcome of a game in a hurry, let them play let instant replay sort it out if need be.

I also wouldn't punish a team by taking away a time out when a particular replay is inconclusive, it's not the challenging team's fault if the camera angle is not sufficient, they could very well be right it's just not visible by replay. I would give each team 2 challenges and so long as you are right you can continue to challenge as many play's as you want, even during the final 2 minutes, I am very leary of that rule and why at the most crucial part of the game the NFL say's sorry no challenges we will take it from here? So long as you have a time out you should be able to challenge.