Physics Professor Calls Beckham's Catch 'Near Superhuman' 56 minutes ago Just as giddy as the fans who saw Odell Beckham's Jr.'s stunning, miraculous — we're running out of words here — touchdown catch on Sunday night were professional scientists who broke down the TD reception with much different perspective. The New York Times' Bill Pennington spoke to two physics professors and another who studies mechanical engineering to hind out the science behind The Catch Heard Round The World. This is not your typical cheesy Sports Science segment on ESPN — it's much more enlightening than that. The overarching message, however, can is summed up by University of Maryland physics professor Jim Gates. “It was a bit like Spider-Man,” Gates told Pennington. “A near superhuman activity.” Physicists calculated that the ball traveled at roughly 46 miles per hour by the time it reached Beckham. John Eric Goff, another physics professor, said the rookie wide receiver stopped the ball in two-tenths of a second to keep it from flying out of bounds. Then this: Beckham needed 10 pounds of force to stop the flying object. He did that ... with just three fingers on the ball. Truly incredible stuff, and there's plenty additional insights in Pennington's article.
I jumped out might chair when I saw it. I was reading Tigerfan and watching the game thinking we have a couple Tigers on that offense and Eli was making good use of them. Then the catch!! Glad I can say I saw it in real time.
I don't get the love for the Harris "catch". More like a lucky bounce in my mind. I would rate the Dwight Clark catch for the 49ers above Franco's being in the right place at the right time.
