I'm not sure what you are looking for. If he starts to take possession from an opponent's hands then hits the ground he's down--when he establishes control appears not to matter according to everyone not Max Kellerman or JagzFan69 on twitter.Edit: just out of curiosity, what is the ruling if Jack is back on his feet by the time he regains possession and becomes a runner? So, strip, starts to grab the ball while still in contact with the runner, touches the ground as he's securing the ball, but still bobbling and gets to his feet and secures the ball? Still down by contact?
Here's how they explained it:
That's written by a guy that's published books on officiating and runs a website dedicated to it that employees football officials. Mike Pereria and Dean Blandino didn't even mention this part of the play when discussing the game because it was called correctly.In this case, the ball was not in possession but taken from an opponent’s hands, so this is deemed as “contact” by the Patriots as Myles begins to take control.
Is it possible that there was no hand-to-hand contact? Yes, but there is no way that can be perceived, so the officials are instructed to treat this as down by contact.
The contact, by the way, only has to occur when a player is beginning to secure the ball. It is held until the player finishes establishing control, and is dead at that point.
This was correctly ruled as down by contact on the recovery.
On the other side of the argument are folks on twitter.