“Until it’s tucked back in”
No, because you don’t have to tuck it all the way back in. Your backward arm movement need not be considered a tuck at all if your intention isn’t to bring it back into the body, but rather merely to stop it from being a pass.
Here we arrive at the maddeningly subjective nature of bodily motions. The ref ruled that everything between the pump fake and the fumble was part of a continual process known as a tuck. But what if it was no such thing? What if Brady wasn’t tucking the ball back into hus body. What if it was backward motion coiling up for a new throw. How long does the defends have to wait to pop him? Infinitely, so long as the ball doesn’t touch his body or move forwards? That’s insane.
“You can make a pretty solid case he was still falling at the point he let go”
No you can’t. Toy can make a case, like the one I made to Ny mom red handed in front of the cookie jar. But not a solid case. The fall is completed when he hits the ground. That’s common sense. The ball comes out when he’s getting up, which is plain as day on the video. Now, getting up was in the same physical motion as taping, since obviously he never loses momentum. But it is not part of the same action according to the rules of football. Because once his Burt lands on the ground and he had control of the ball, it is a touchdown. What happens afterwards is after the play.
Only, just as with the tuck rule, we enter into the twilight zone of completing processes. The catch is not a catch until the process is complete. When is that, praytell? Two seconds later? Three? Does he have to go to sleep clutching the ball and be awarded the td after eight hours of REM?
If you go by body mechanics his fall ends when he lands. The ball comes out not until after he clearly turns his body and starts to get up. It was absolutely not the same process, and anyone who argues otherwise is frankly rationalizing from the assumption that the call is right.
Yes you have to tuck it all the way back in. Backward arm movement doesn’t matter, once the arm goes forward with the ball it’s considered a pass attempt unless or until it’s tucked. That’s the rule. I agree it’s stupid, but that’s the rule. Your what ifs don’t matter, they show why the rule is stupid, but they don’t matter. Yes you’re right, it’s insane, BUT it’s the rule. Like I said, bad rule, officiated exactly as written.
By NFL rules hitting the ground is the BEGINNING of the fall NOT the end. Which on the surface makes sense, you’ve got a bunch of 6 foot tall people out there hitting the ground at all kinds of angles that make sure all 6 feet of them don’t hit the ground at once. If you declare the fall done the instant any part of the touches the ground what happens if they drop it. The rule is there for guys diving to catch the ball and it pops out when their shoulder hits, by your rule if their knee hits first that’s a completion, not common sense. Problem is the rule still gets stuck being vague, so we get a situation where a guy holds on the ball during all the “impact” parts of a fall and then lets go while he’s still got momentum. Sure looks like he finished falling, but by the rule he’s not. Again, bad rule, because it doesn’t define when a player is “through” falling, we know it’s after the instant of initial impact, and we know it’s before he gets back up on his feet. But with the rule as written it’s all a judgement call, and it penalizes players that use their momentum to get back up. Again, bad rule, officiated to the letter.
I agree with ALL of your logic on why the calls were logically wrong. What I’m pointing out is that the rules are written wrong. Happens. Especially in the NFL where they have a very thick rule book that tries to deal with every millisecond of possible action. Which is how we get situations where the refs are completely right while the results are illogical. The refs’ job is NOT to enforce logic, they enforce the BOOK.