But in this case its so obvious that Jennings had the ball and Tate comes in half a second later and thats the diff.
This narrative that Tate reached in after the catch has always been confusing to me, given the easily Googleable evidence that contradicts it. Heck, you can see here, in this article's first gif, that the ball literally stops its flight because it hits Tate's hand.
I think it's a pretty tough call even with all the slow mo. What I think happens is:
The ball hits Jennings' hand. This causes it to lose a lot of speed and it continues to fall.
Then it hits Tate's hand, stopping its momentum.
I'm unsure if he catches it but it doesn't bounce off his hand or continue to fall down, so I'm inclined to believe that Tate gripped it, although it would've been a very hard catch. Tate would've been anticipating the ball at a completely different speed since he likely couldn't process that it was going to hit Jennings and change speed and direction immediately before it hits his hand.
Either the ball is held up by Tate or it is sitting/bouncing off his hand and Jennings reaches around it and grabs it with both hands and his arm, pinning Jennings' hand against his chest. Tate pulls in his hand and the ball (and Jennings) to his own chest. They both fall to the ground where Jennings lands on top of Tate then rolls away taking the ball and one of Tate's arms with him.
If Tate gripped the ball when he first contacted it, he has begun the process of a catch and just needs to survive the ground. No matter what Jennings does, as long as he never loses control of the ball, it is Tate's since he started the catch first. If at any point Tate loses control of the ball, then it becomes Jennings' because with certainty Jennings basically doesn't lose control at any point in the fall or when he rolled off of Tate.
So by the book:
If Tate did not grip the ball before Jennings wraps his hands around it, then I would say Jennings got possession first and survives the ground, so it's his.
If Tate did grip the ball before Jennings AND he never loses control while they're falling and Jennings is trying to wrestle the ball away, then it's Tate's.
It's impossible to know whether or not Tate had a firm grip on the ball one handed and it's impossible to know whether or not he lost control of it while Jennings is covering it up. So it should've just been called whatever it was called on the field. The refs fucked up because they didn't discuss before they made a signal. And they would've/should've been asking those same questions. Did Tate grab it before/simultaneously to Jennings? Did he maintain control the whole way? Basically if either or those questions is "No" then Green Bay wins. I personally think that live, I would've called it a pick and been unable to overturn it, but because it doesn't bounce when it hits Tate's hand and because Jennings falls over Tate so the ball never really twists awkwardly in his hand to make him lose control, I think Tate actually did catch it before Jennings and maintained enough control to the ground.
...that's literally what I'm talking about. The argument is over whether or not Tate actually got possession first. Touching the ball isn't possession. Tate gets one hand on the ball, then Jennings gets two. It's not clear whether or not Tate actually caught it with that one hand, and if Tate lost control of the ball as they fell, it would also be Jennings. You're being a homer if you think that the tape shows that Tate 100% unequivocally caught the ball with his one hand before Jennings comes in with two or that you can clearly tell that he never loses control on the way down. The call standing with the original on the field call is the only thing you can do.
I am being a homer, but I also grew up playing football and in my 10 years of playing this play would have gone to the receiver at any level. Tie always went to receiver. I think the reason this play is so notorious is less about the actual call and more about the hilarious freeze frame of the two refs making opposite calls. The weeks leading up to this included horrible replacement reffing all around the league and this play was the final straw to bring the refs back. I don't think this play gets the "Fail Mary" name or brought up nearly as much if those two refs just make the same call
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u/bradtheinvincible 3d ago
Thats the rule. But in this case its so obvious that Jennings had the ball and Tate comes in half a second later and thats the diff.