Elisha Nelson Manning is the one.
While most the world melted down over Jesse James' touchdown being overturned in the Pittsburgh Steelers' loss to the New England Patriots, Eli Manning shrugged off the call.
"I know the rules," the New York Giants quarterback told the New York Post about the seemingly perplexing catch canon.
If you are baffled by the inconsistent, convoluted catch rule, and find yourself shouting 'What is a catch!?!' at your viewing screen each Sunday, please know you aren't alone. You just aren't Manning.
"I was watching the game live, you see it, and it doesn't look like an incompletion at all," Manning explained his processing of the James catch/non-catch. "Once they slow it down and see him going to the ground and the ball hitting the ground, incompletion."
Unlike Jim Nantz and Tony Romo, who seemed puzzled by the elongated review of the touchdown, Manning was confident the replay officials would overturn the score.
"You hate it, when you're watching it live, you don't even think about that not being a catch," he said. "When they run it down, hey, when you go to the ground you got to finish with the ball in your hand. When it hits the ground and there's movement, I was like, 'I think that's enough evidence where they're gonna reverse that.'"
While others scratch their heads trying to reconcile the catch rule, Manning believes the line is bright yellow. The Big Blue quarterback pointed to a Sterling Shepard touchdown being ruled incomplete earlier this year as evidence for the consistency of the calls.
"I think it is clear what a catch is," he said. "Especially when you're going to the ground, you got to control the ball the whole time. You got to have it. If the ball hits the ground, you're going to the ground, the ball moves or hits the ground and there's a little loss of contact through the end of the play, it's gonna be an incompletion."
Ok, Eli, we all know the explanation of the rule. The problem for most people is it's a ridiculous rule. Surely, Manning can agree the rule needs to be changed, right?
Wrong.
"I think there's probably more questions on whether it was a catch or not before this rule," Manning said. "There was kinda, 'It looks like a catch, what are the exact rules?' They made it definitive in saying, 'These are the rules and it's gonna be called fairly and equally every way.'"
Manning's comments sound like they could have been taken directly from a press release originating in the league's officiating office. Those remarks also explain why, despite the public outcry, we should not expect radical changes to the rule this offseason.
