At a news conference on Monday announcing the proposed changes, Al Riveron, the N.F.L.'s senior vice president of officiating, acknowledged that removing the "surviving the ground" language would likely result in an uptick in fumbles but he said that fan pressure was involved in the decision making.
"Are we going to see more fumbles? Maybe," Riveron said. "We want to make these catches, catches. That's what the fans want."
Rich McKay, the president of the Atlanta Falcons, said the league's history of tweaking the catch rule had led to far too much confusion, necessitating a total break in how catches are handled.
"We needed to start over," he said. "It got to us, we need to get objective standards."
The seemingly endless string of catching controversies led Commissioner Roger Goodell to vow to make revamping the rule a top priority for the league.
"I think we can clarify this rule," Goodell said at his annual news conference before the Super Bowl. "With a lot of hard work, focus, get to a place where — I'm not going to say there won't be controversy — but we can get to a better place. We have a great opportunity to get this thing right."
Owners said they would still brace for controversial calls but predicted there would be fewer of them.
"This rule change is not gonna solve every single issue, you're still gonna have a certain amount of subjectivity," said John Mara, the owner of the Giants.
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