Hours after Dallas was defeated in Green Bay, the player at the center of that game’s most memorable sequence spoke for millions of other football followers than just the Cowboys and their frustrated fans.
“We lost and I accept it,” wide receiver Dez Bryant tweeted, “but please change that rule.”
His leaping 31-yard reception on fourth down landed at the 1 in the waning minutes, but the call was overturned by a Packers challenge and Green Bay took a 26-21 victory to the NFC championship game.
Dallas had many other opportunities to win and the rule was widely deemed to be interpreted correctly, so the latest NFL controversy wasn’t about a team getting a raw deal from the refs.
Rather, this was the conundrum: a spectacular catch that passed the eye test for most people watching, but failed to satisfy the league’s complex rule book. The spotlight Sunday fell on Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3, Item 1: