Asking “What is a catch?” in the NFL often leads one into an existential minefield. In the Divisional Round matchup between the Titans-Ravens, the catch rule finally answered a more practical question: “What constitutes a butt?”
A Titans touchdown catch turned into an NFL ruling about butt cheeks
Jonnu Smith’s touchdown catch in Titans-Ravens answered an important question about what constitutes a butt.
Titans tight end Jonnu Smith made an unbelievable, bobbling, one-handed catch that he completed with one foot and one butt cheek in bounds.
The question at hand was: What does the NFL consider a butt? The rulebook states that a player can only complete a catch if their body “touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands.” It’s tough tell for sure whether Smith gets a foot in with control of the ball (I think he does), but his left butt cheek is definitely in bounds.
Here is a closer look, courtesy of SB Nation’s own James Brady:
Smith rolls over and his right butt cheek lands out of bounds, but it doesn’t matter. The NFL is making an important distinction here: the butt is comprised of at least two distinct entities, a left cheek and a right cheek. Both do not have to be in bounds to say that one’s “butt” touched the ground.
This is good news for cheeks rights advocates everywhere who have been lobbying for the recognition that each half of the butt deserves. It takes two cheeks to form a butt. Though they are best known for their efforts as a tandem, they are each important on their own.
Thank you, NFL, for setting a monumental precedent for posteriority.
