Despite what the Monday Night Football crew apparently thinks, dropping the ball is not the same thing as not catching the ball.

I’m saying this because the crack announcers showed a highlight reel of dropped passes by Cleveland Browns’ wide receiver Braylon Edwards. The only problem is that he didn’t drop the passes shown; he just didn’t catch them. A dropped pass is not a pass that is deflected off a receiver’s fingers and falls safely to the ground—–or having the ball bounce off your head and onto the ground—–or having the ball bounce off your chest and then to the ground. In order to drop the ball, it is required that you first catch the ball—that is, you should have some sort of possession of it first.

You might say that the announcers dropped the ball on that one.

–Paul

Paul’s book–Literally, the Best Language Book Ever

Sherry’s Grammar List