More Easterbrook Stupidity

Sour Play of the Week No. 2: "Catch the ball with your hands!" That's what coaches endlessly tell running backs and receivers -- meaning, do not catch the ball against your body, instead hold your hands outward and catch the ball before it can strike your chest or pads and ricochet away. Specifically, receivers are coached to form their hands into a diamond shape to catch the ball away from the body. On the decisive play of the Giants-Ravens game, Ravens wide receiver Derrick Mason let the ball ricochet off his upper chest and into the hands of Aaron Ross for an interception, which was returned for a touchdown. Mason's hands were not in a diamond; he had his hands all wrong in terms of form, allowing the ball to strike his body.



Would that have been a pick to the house if Mason used the diamond? Maybe not, although Easterbrook, in typical Easterbrook fashion, makes it sound like drops/ints never occur when the diamond method is employed.

However, it is fucking ridiculous that Easterbrook, who oft criticizes others for their lack of attention to detail, apparently couldn't be bothered to watch the play, or the multiple replays from different angles, with a close enough eye to see that the ball clearly struck Mason's face mask, not his "upper chest."

Fucking hypocrite.