What is sad is that the NFL doesn’t seem to know its own rules of a simultaneous catch.
Listen to how Easley explains courtesy of TMZ then looks how it is written in rule book.
“You have to not only have the ball but have either 2 feet or a body part on the ground, and that never happened.”
“Put any other official who knows the rules and they would make the same call.”
Easley is right that is the rule for a completed catch, but it isn’t the rule for a simultaneous catch.
If a pass is caught simultaneously by two eligible opponents, and both players retain it, the ball belongs to the passers. It is not a simultaneous catch if a player gains control first and an opponent subsequently gains joint control.
So, you don’t have to “complete” the catch, you just have to gain control first, as soon as you do it doesn’t matter what the other player does.
Simply put DB Jennings had control first and then much later in the process did Golden Tate gets his hands on the ball (and even that wasn’t clear).
Easley got it wrong and it is he who didn’t know the rules.