Jon Gruden doesn’t think NFL’s proposed new catch rule will resolve anything

Jon Gruden has seen the way the NFL Competition Committee has rewritten the league’s catch-no catch rule.

The belief of Al Riveron, the NFL’s head of officiating, and other committee members is that eliminating the “surviving the ground” element and keeping a catch within three components (control, two feet or another body part in bounds, and making a football move) will give coaches, players and fans what they want.

‘Now I just feel like, let the referee call it’

But Gruden is among the coaches who believes that the rewrite provides a solution to getting the call right more often.

“No, not really,” the Oakland Raiders’ coach told Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan on Movin’ The Chains at the NFL’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. “I’ve gone full circle on it. I used to try to come up with the exact, is-it-or-is-it-not a catch? Now I just feel like, let the referee call it.

‘I think we’ve ruined football with this really s-slow speed instant replay’

“I think we’ve ruined football with this really s-low speed instant replay, because you’re really not seeing the game at live speed. I really just think you’ve got to turn it over to the officials, let them call the game, let’s get on with it. That’s my opinion.”

A proposal to change to the NFL’s pass-interference penalty has been withdrawn, but Gruden would like it only called when it is blatantly obvious.

‘It should be obvious for (pass interference) to be called’

“We should all be able to see it, in a bar or at home, and say, ‘Hey, that’s PI,'” he said. “It should be obvious for it to be called. I don’t want to get into all the nuances. It’s hard enough right now, I think, to officiate the game. But God bless the people on the Competition Committee that are trying to solve this problem.”