Why Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel tweeted at NFL officiating during Chiefs-Broncos game

Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel said he tweeted at NFL officiating after a controversial call during Sunday night’s Chiefs-Broncos game because he saw a “good opportunity” to remind league observers of the rules for the process of a catch.

During the second quarter of the game, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce caught a pass, appeared to tuck the ball and took three steps before the ball was punched out by Broncos cornerback Kyle Fuller, causing a fumble that was recovered by Denver. But the refs said it was an incomplete pass, and after a Broncos’ challenge, the ruling was upheld. So Kansas City kept the ball.

According to a Twitter statement from NFL Officiating, Kelce “did not fully complete the process of a catch, because the third element of a catch — time — was not met.”

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That’s when Vrabel, who’s on the NFL's Competition Committee, tweeted out a screen shot of the official NFL rules for a completed pass. The rules state that an act common to football – like tucking the ball away, extending it forward and turning upfield – can be a substitute for the time portion. Kelce appeared to fulfill that requirement.

“It was just my opportunity to sit there and be a fan and watch,” Vrabel said Monday. “That was all that was. I have that on my phone, it is on my home screen, the rule book. I took a screenshot, figured out how to tweet it out so that everybody who followed could understand the process of what a catch was and what it isn’t.”

Vrabel rarely posts to social media, so his tweet drew attention across the league.

“No different than trying to identify instances across the league to show our players, whether it is surviving the ground, not having the ability to take that third step or make a football movement,” Vrabel continued. “These are all close critical plays. Hopefully we can teach our players how to understand how things are being called and then being able to play to the recovery of the football. All those things go into close plays that are either ruled turnovers or could potentially be reviewed and have to clear recovery. There are a lot of things that go into it. It is an extremely fast game.”

Ben Arthur covers the Tennessee Titans for The USA TODAY Network. Contact him at barthur@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @benyarthur.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Titans' Vrabel explains why he tweeted at NFL officiating