John McGrath: Possession arrow makes more sense than scrum guessing game

There was a potentially pivotal fumble Sunday night midway through the fourth quarter of the Seahawks’ defeat to the Packers, and what happened in the moment that followed is what usually happens when the ball is loose.

Several players convened in the football version of a six-car collision. Those players who didn’t participate in the pileup volunteered themselves as self-deputized officials, some signaling Packers’ possession, others signaling Seahawks’ possession. The bystanders had no clue, of course, and neither did the referee, who determined the ball belonged to Green Bay even though Hawks left guard Justin Britt held it over his head.

“We kind of reached for it at the same time,” Britt said of his tussle with the Packers’ Jayrone Elliott, “and then all I know is he tried to pull it into him. Then I pulled the tip and pulled it away. I walked away with the ball. Explain to me how that’s their ball.”

I can explain it like this, Justin: The Packers were awarded possession on the premise only one team can have the ball at one time, and when there’s doubt — and in every pileup, there’s doubt — the benefit of the doubt goes to, uh, whoever. Flip a coin.

Otherwise, rules don’t apply, because rules are all but impossible to enforce when huge athletes are groveling for an object hidden by a ton of humanity.

Arm-twisting and leg-pulling are part of the deal, and while tales of the more sordid methods of attaining possession might be exaggerated — to my knowledge, nobody has lost an eye to a poked finger — famed dirty-trickster Conrad Dobler wasn’t entirely joking when he said: “Some people get vasectomies; I used to give ’em.”

Among major sports, the NFL is in a league of its own about implementing rule changes. When extra-point kicks became the equivalent of a tap-in putt, for instance, the kicks were made more of a challenge in 2015, a 33-yard boot instead of the 19-yard gimme.

It’s too early to judge whether the rule change is a success, but when the Pittsburgh Steelers are attempting two-point conversions in the first quarter, something tells me the rule change is working.

And yet a league with an aggressively flexible Competition Committees still permits 300-pound players to pile on each other and engage in a free-for-all that basically comes down to a 50-50 proposition.

I understand, fumble scrums are a raw and primal link to the sport’s rugby roots. The “Want-To” mentality required to obtain a ball at the bottom of a mosh pit is the essence of the right stuff.

But I don’t trust what I can’t see, and television technology has yet to advance to the point we can see all that goes on during a fumble scrum. We couldn’t see anything Sunday night, when the Packers’ recovery of the loose ball — it put them in position to kick a field goal, turning a one-score lead into a two-score lead — proved momentous.

Here’s an idea: Acknowledge fumble-scrum pileups as a waste of time and energy, sloppy diversions that provide no entertainment, serve no purpose, and put players at risk.

Here’s a follow-up idea, borrowed from college basketball’s 1981 rule change that resolved tie-ups with a possession arrow instead of a jump ball. Give the first possession arrow to the visiting team.

Some discretion would be necessary. A loose ball still would be up for grabs, available to the first player who pounces on it. But if the fumble recovery scramble lasts longer than, say, five seconds, a whistle is blown and possession is given to the team with the arrow.

Like most football fans, I am a nonviolent person who enjoys watching violent collisions. Although one-handed catches and broken-field jukes personify grace, just as compelling — just as beautiful, really — is a textbook tackle.

I’m not opposed to mayhem. What I’m opposed to is madness: the assumption that a ball can be fairly obtained in a 30-second pileup so contentious the referee is forced to flip a coin in his head.

The next NFL rules change should eliminate fumble scrums, with the ball going to the team owning the possession arrow. Injuries will be minimized, controversies will be alleviated, and the legend that is Conrad Dobler will prevail by the one word his opponents screamed in a pileup.

Ouch!

This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 10:28 PM with the headline "John McGrath: Possession arrow makes more sense than scrum guessing game."