Bold claim: a single replay ruling from a chaotic moment could rewrite the NFL rulebook. And this is the part most people miss: the Rams are signaling they want a rule change after that Week 16 thriller against the Seahawks, aiming to declare a contested two-point try an unsuccessful play rather than a successful one.
The gist: after the game, Rams coach Sean McVay exploded at how replay review transformed an incomplete pass into a successful two-point conversion. Now, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reports that Los Angeles intends to push for a rule tweak that would flip the result of that exact play to an unsuccessful two-point try. Details on the precise change haven’t been released yet.
What happened on the field was unusually tangled. A backward pass deflected in such a way that it traveled forward, and because the ball wasn’t fumbled, a defender could—legally—recover it beyond the spot of the backward pass. That quirk created the bizarre outcome: a successful two-point conversion from a situation that began as a failed pass.
One plausible approach would be to apply fumble rules to a backward pass that is touched by a defender, potentially even more narrowly to a backward pass touched by a defender and ricocheting forward. In other words, the rule would treat this like a live-ball scenario only under a very specific set of conditions.
Beyond the novelty of the play, the sequence took an unusually long 100 seconds to begin replay review. According to reports cited by PFT, a call from Prime Video rules analyst Terry McAulay to NFL rules analyst Walt Anderson kicked off the review process.
Given the game’s stakes—impacting the NFC West title race and the conference’s No. 1 seed—the ruling was described as the call of the year by some observers. Whether the proposed rule change will actually go through remains to be seen.
A counterpoint worth noting: because plays like this occur so rarely, some argue that changing the rule isn’t worth the upheaval. Teams still coach players to pursue any loose ball they encounter, a habit that Zach Charbonnet of the Seahawks highlighted in that moment: he sprinted to secure the ball with little hesitation. If you change the rule, could that instinct be dampened or misapplied in future high-leverage moments?
What do you think? Should the NFL adjust the rule to prevent similar oddities, or is the rarity of such plays a strong argument for keeping the status quo? Share your thoughts on whether this was a unique hiccup or a catalyst for meaningful change.
