Questionable Call of the Week: Did Bradshaw Really Fumble?

If the NFL were to write an educational book for up-and-coming players, they might title it Everybody Fumbles. And after it publishes, they might want to send a copy over to Ahmad Bradshaw. The New York Giants’ running back currently leads the league with six fumbles. And in the second half of the Giants’ loss to the Eagles this past Sunday, it appeared that Bradshaw had fumbled yet again. That was, until the fumble ruling was overturned after a Giants’ challenge. The officials claimed that Bradshaw’s forearm had touched the ground before the ball came loose; thus, he was down and the play couldn’t be ruled a fumble. But was that really the right call?

In the referees’ defense, the replay videos in this instance were anything but helpful. From behind, video evidence was inconclusive because at the time that Bradshaw’s forearm “supposedly” hits the ground, his right leg is almost entirely obstructing the view. And from the side, it couldn’t really be seen whether Bradshaw’s forearm was indeed on the ground when the ball came out. But still, how can the referees use any of that video to justify overturning the fumble ruling?

How many times do we hear officials harp on the necessity of “irrefutable evidence” in order to overturn a ruling? And then, in what appears to be a textbook lack of irrefutable evidence, they go ahead and overturn the call anyway. Come on, is it more likely that Bradshaw had his forearm down or that he fumbled the ball for the seventh time in ten games?

Obviously, this ruling didn’t affect the overall result of the game. The Eagles would go on to force the G-men to punt and then score the go-ahead touchdown on a neatly designed fourth-down play. But that’s not my point. My point is that considering how much of a sticking point this “irrefutable evidence” criterion is claimed to be, the fumble ruling shouldn’t have been overturned. If you can’t reasonably prove that a particular ruling on the field was an error in judgment, then you stick with your original judgment.    

(In a side note, I do have a recap of this game in the works. So for the 10 of you who do actually read the blog, that’s something to look forward to.)