There's an awful lot of complaining here about a call that was reversed in our favor. Even when the system works, some fans want to see conspiracy.
One thing the NFL needs to clean up is the possession-to-the-ground rule on a catch.
Here's the rule:
"If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact by an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball throughout the process of contacting the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains control,the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete."
So, we have Dallas completing a key 3rd. and long late in the game trying to hold the lead. I believe it was the 3rd. and 12 to Bryant for 13 yards with about 4 minutes left. He makes the "catch", turns up field while simultaneously being tackled, and the ball pops out as he contacts the ground. It's ruled a catch, no fumble.
The commentators question whether it's a fumble. The Packer players are calling for a fumble. MM reaches for his flag but doesn't throw it because the replay shows no fumble. Nobody here, and evidently nobody on the field or calling the game, questioned whether it was a catch.
The league used to say, for official guidance though not stated in the rules, that the player needs to "complete a football move" first to constitute a catch. Evidently, they don't publicize that guidance any more because of it's vagueness, but it seems to be what the officials go by.
In the Bryant case, I don't see a completed football move before contacting the ground. I fail to see a difference between this call and the controversial Megatron no-catch call from 2010.
Then we have the Aikman commentary on the Williams no-INT reversal. He said that it was hard to tell if he had full possession before the tip of the ball hit the ground. That's not an atypical comment. That doesn't matter...the player must have possession to the ground.
Nobody seems to clearly understands this rule. They should change it to something that makes sense intuitively and can be more clearly understood, applied and reviewable: two feet down with possession anywhere in the field of play is a catch. Whatever happens after than does not affect whether the ball was caught.