End The Force-Out Foul!

TMQ, in a typically-for-him-insightful column (not sure why there's so much hate running around for him right now, but whatever), argues that the force-out foul should be abolished:

End the Force-Out Rule: Was Kellen Winslow forced out of bounds on the Browns' final play? Maybe, but the fact that the sports-nut world is debating this question shows you can't be sure. (Had force-out been called, Cleveland would have been awarded a touchdown and won.) The force-out rule requires officials to make a snap judgment about whether the receiver would have come down in bounds if he hadn't been shoved. Answering with anything but guesswork requires a time machine and an alternate universe. Guesswork shouldn't be part of football officiating. The force-out rule should be abolished. To make the catch, your feet must be in bounds, and if the defender knocks you out of bounds first, bully for him.

I like this idea. In Ultimate, which is a non-contact sport, we have a force-out foul. Same idea: if you were going to come down in-bounds, absent contact from your opponent, then you can call a force-out foul and retain possession (or the goal, if it happened in the end zone.) But then, Ultimate is a non-contact sport. If someone slamming into you causes you to drop the disc, it's a foul, not a turnover.

Football, on the other hand, is a contact sport. If you can knock the ball away from someone before then hit the ground, then it's a drop, not a catch. By analogy, the rational rule would seem to be that if you can knock them out of bounds before they come down, then it's not a catch.

However, I should point out that it was one hell of a catch by Winslow. They don't award points for style in the NFL, but if they did, that would have been a game-winner for sure.