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So Officials Applied the 2018 Catch Rule in the Super Bowl Instead of the 2017 One? This is Fine.

PFTNFL owners didn’t vote on a new catch rule until Tuesday when it passed unanimously. But, according to ESPN, the league applied the new rule — even though it wasn’t a rule then — in Super Bowl LII.

ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio said a conversation with Al Riveron, the NFL’s senior vice president of officiating, indicated it was “clear” the rule already was in place for replay rulings on touchdown catches by Zach Ertz and Corey Clement.

“They were basically legislating on the fly during the Super Bowl,” Paolantoio said on NFL Live, via a transcript from NESN.

Chris Mortensen agreed with Paolantonio, saying, “I will still maintain, as I said [Monday], that we saw this rule in action during the Super Bowl when the Eagles played the Patriots.”

The Eagles benefited from both rulings, with replay upholding the touchdowns.

Well OK then. No big deal. Just a couple of reporters on the NFL’s Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, including the Father of Deflategate, sitting around with the NFL’s head of officiating chatting about how the refs in the Super Bowl applied a future rule that gave the Eagles two touchdowns. I can handle that.

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So the Precogs on the officiating crew didn’t technically get those calls wrong. They just were ahead of the curve. Psychically channeling the catch rule as it was going to be written at some later date. Which was very prescient of them, when you think about it. So I don’t mind at all. Just like I’ve never complained about Mike Perreria saying the Philly Special was an illegal formation:

I know the league came out and said that it’s a judgment call, which it is,” Pereira said on a podcast by Talk of Fame Network. “The down judge, who was the one that [the play] was on his side of the field, they felt that it was his judgment, and [receiver Alshon Jeffery] was close enough. Well, he wasn’t. They lined up wrong.… We always use a yard [within the line of scrimmage], maybe a yard and a half. But that’s two [yards], and even a little bit beyond two. It’s kind of one of those that has no effect on the play. I get it. But they didn’t line up properly. And it really should’ve been called.”

Again, I’m not mad. These things happen. Officials miss some obviously illegal formations. Others miss blatant illegal contacts:

And every so often they interpret a rule with language that doesn’t exist but might some time in the future. Which is great. It makes the game so much more interesting when you don’t know which future season’s as-yet-nonexistent rule book they’re going to use.

So I’m looking forward to 2018 to see which Patriots play the league might preemptively call illegal, anticipating that some year down the road the Colts or Ravens will get it banned by the Competition Committee/Precrime Unit. Because why not? That’s fair. While we’re at it, maybe we ought to just go back and take away all those past Super Bowls because the Patriots were taping sidelines before it was illegal, getting physical with receivers before it was illegal, using tackle eligible formations before it was illegal and jumping center before it was illegal.

Some other fanbase might, I don’t know … resent hearing they got robbed of a Super Bowl by a rule that wouldn’t exist for another two months. But not Pats fans. We’re not complaining. All we want is what’s best for everybody.

@jerrythornton1