The Chicago Bears, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the 30-yard “Incompletion”

Rules of the Game: The 30 Yard “Incompletion”

On January 6, 2019, the Chicago Bears completed a 30-yard pass in their playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles. The pass was then fumbled as the Bears receiver went to the ground.

Unfortunately, the referee’s initial ruling of an incomplete pass was deemed non-reversible under the current interpretation of the NFL rules due to the fact that the officials (and not either team) “recovered” the fumble…which was, again, not called a fumble on the field.

And so, the 30-yard “incompletion” was born.

What do the NFL rules say about this mess?

How could they be changed (or interpreted differently) to avoid disregarding what everyone knows to be the correct ruling?

And what does this say about rule drafting, interpretation, and law in general?

TGIF: April 7, 2017 – On MGoBlog, Injustice, and Indiscretion

Despite what you may have heard, lawyers are, in fact, human beings with interests and hobbies all their own. They are not, I repeat not, robots sent from the future solely for the purpose of billing hours, drafting documents, and negotiating terms.  Not all of them anyway.  

In TGIF, I touch on some of my own interests primarily through the lens of the “Rules of the Game”, focusing on the rules and incentives that affect many aspects of our daily lives. I may even crack a joke or two.  Hard to say.

TGIF will be published regularly on (surprisingly enough) Friday mornings. For more information, check out www.hoeglaw.com or drop Rick a line at rhoeg@hoeglaw.com.

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Sponsorship Note – MGOBLOG

For those of you who didn’t see it (and based on the number of e-mail responses I received there may only be a handful of you left), yesterday marked the start of Hoeg Law’s long term sponsorship of one of my favorite sports blogs on the Internet: MgoBlog.

MgoBlog was introduced to me by a close friend and law school classmate in about 2008 or so.  It has been my daily source for Michigan sports news and insights you can’t find anywhere else on the planet (including in big mass media sports coverage) ever since.

I am very pleased for Hoeg Law to be a part of supporting their good work.  Check them out if you haven’t already.