It could be dismissed as too little, too late. But five months after Zach Miller's infamous touchdown catch was overturned, the former Bears tight end was vindicated by the NFL on Monday.
Al Riveron, senior vice president of officiating, said Miller's disputed reception against the Saints Oct. 29 would have been ruled a touchdown under the amended version of the catch rule that the competition committee is recommending to ownership at the league meetings this week.
At a news conference Monday, Riveron was asked how the proposed amendments would have applied to the touchdown catch that Riveron himself overturned in the third quarter of the Bears' 20-12 loss. He simply responded: "Touchdown."
Not that Miller needed to hear it. He responded via his Twitter account, saying the play will always be a catch, regardless of the rule. Miller dislocated his left knee as he came down in the end zone, an injury that likely ended his career.
Notably, when Riveron was pressed for a more detailed explanation Monday in an interview after the news conference, he did not remember the play clearly enough to specify how the amendments would apply to Miller's play.
"He would have to have control; two feet (down) or another body part; and then make a football move _ it would have been a touchdown," Riveron said. "I'm not looking at the play right now, so I can't really judge on that last part of it."
As Riveron explained, though, in a video released Nov. 1 by the NFL, he overturned the call because he believed Miller bobbled the ball on his descent to the ground and therefore was not in control of it. Riveron also believed the ball hit the ground.
So any review of Miller's play under the new rule would center on whether he controlled the ball, which is the first of three requirements for a catch. Miller finished the play by rolling over with control of ball, but Riveron at the time ruled that was irrelevant because the pass already was incomplete.
The proposed amendment, though, is more lenient as it relates to a receiver going to the ground. In fact, the new version of the rule eliminates the entire 108-word item subtitled "Player Going to the Ground."
The new rule also includes the following note: "Movement of the ball does not automatically result in loss of control." That's a change from the previous language, which used the descriptor "slight" movement.
"If we see total loss of control, that's the way we're going to rule it," Riveron said. "But we understand there are situations where the ball is going to move. We have to see loss of control."
"We felt like the word 'slight' was getting people caught up," Rich McKay, competition committee chairman and Falcons team president, said Friday. "It's really loss of control. If you lose control of the ball, then you haven't satisfied sub paragraph B. But if you have movement of the ball but haven't lost control of it, then you still have (control)."
So there still appears to be subjectivity to the rule, although the league's goal was to minimize that and make a catch easier to officiate.
The proposed amendment lists the following three requirements for a catch:
Secures control of the ball in his hands or arms, prior to the ball touching the ground.
(b) Touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands.
(c) After (a) and (b) have been fulfilled, performs any act common to the game (for example, tuck the ball away, extend it towards or over the goal line or the line to gain, take an additional step, turn upfield, or avoid or ward off an opponent), or he maintains control of the ball long enough to do so.
So game officials (and Riveron inside the league's video review center) still must consider a time element. How long is long enough?
They also will encounter variations of an "act common to the game," or as it's often called in this context, "a football move."
Those interpretations _ and the inevitable controversies _ are sure to surface on Sunday afternoons this falls. And Miller and the Bears are still left to ponder what might have _ or what should have _ been.
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(Colleen Kane contributed to this report.)
