10. Calvin Johnson’s Non-Touchdown
Johnson appeared to have a win for his Lions when he caught an amazing touchdown against the Chicago Bears with less than a minute left in Week 1 of the 2010 regular season. But after he clearly caught the ball in the end zone, he rolled over and the ball went out of his grasp on the ground. A second referee overruled the touchdown and an uproar ensued. They said that Johnson didn’t ‘complete the process’ by holding onto the ball as he fell to the ground.
The controversy was heightened by the fact that a runner simply needs to break the plane of the end zone with the ball to score a touchdown. But a receiver seemingly needed to complete three of four more rules-based tasks to score on a catch. This led to the so-called ‘Calvin Johnson’ rule that was once again enforced without much consistency.