by "hand on the ball" you mean "touching it with his forearm while Jennings catches it" The convolutions you're going through in order to obscure this are pretty obvious. You don't have to evaluate what Tate would have done had Jennings not been there. In fact that's the opposite of what you're supposed to do, and why you're wrong.
The rule isn't that clear-cut and it conflicts with other rules. If you can judge whether or not something is a catch, (you can) then you can review the call.
I think it was pretty clear that the first person to obtain possession was Jennings, and that Tate never had possession. Having your hand on the ball =! possession.
And if thtey had magically fallen in the same position maybe you'd have a point, but that's not what happened. Jennings pulled the ball into his body, put 2 feet on the ground, and then Tait wrestled his hands in afterwards. (unless you are arguing that he magically maintained a fingertip on the ball by rotating his wrist 180 degrees as part of his "catch"......Honestly is now just tipping the ball is simultaneous catch to you?
The CALL on the FIELD was TOUCHDOWN. Which means... the refs had to have ruled simultaneous possession in order to give the touchdown to Tate. Simultaneous possession IS NOT REVIEWABLE. I really don't understand what you're trying to argue here. They couldn't overturn it based on the replay because it's against the rules, that part is clear-cut. This wasn't the replay officials fault, that's for damn sure.
Having the your hand wrapped around the ball without it touching the ground is a possession. I agree that Jennings CLEARLY had possession and if I was the replay official and the rule allowed for me to overturn it, I would have overturned it myself because Jennings clearly had possession while Tate's claim to the ball is dodgy at best, but as seen in the picture above, it's not as clear cut as someone's foot being out of bounds or ball touching the ground or something like that.
Watch the replay again, Tate maintains his hand under the ball between Jennings' chest and the ball the whole way down, which is why Jennings couldn't just throw the ball on the ground and Tate eventually wrestled it away.
You are completely missing the boat. Stop confusing hands and possession. Tate can touch the ball first for all it matters. Only Jennings pulls the ball in and controls it and that is all that matters.
Jennings pulls the ball in while Tate's hand remained on the ball between the ball and Jennings' chest.
The picture above doesn't matter, because as Sam stated, they didn't fall to the ground in that same position. It was pretty clear cut and a terrible call.
Please tell me where it says here that it's not reviewable? http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/2012 - Rule Book.pdf Flip to page 90. It says scoring plays are reveiwable, and it says pass complete/incomplete/intercepted reviewable....it also lists a number of plays not reviewable. It doesn't say "simultaneous catch" is among them, and even if it did, the fact that it expressly makes scores & interceptions reviewable contradicts this.
Are you guys just going off of memory? I've watched the replay over and over again and it seems pretty clear to me that they did in fact fall to the ground in the same position. Tate keeps his hand on the ball all the down the ground between the ball and Jennings' chest and gets his right hand on it too later. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/C5xy_dC--Ms" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
By "same position" you mean one guy tucking the ball into his body with both arms and the other guy grabbing at it" - is that waht it shows in that picture you posted? But anyway we get where you're coming from basically all you have to do is touch the ball all the way down [randy moss one handed catch yotube clip] and then voila, simultaneous catch, a winner is you! There's a reason why you're finding yourself in the minority on this.
He's not just grabbing at it, he gets his hand on the ball the same time Jennings does and keeps it between the ball and Jennings' body the entire way down. It's not like he snuck a hand in there after Jennings caught the ball. Like I said, it's "probably" an interception but it's not clear-cut. That's all I'm saying. The minority's never been right in anything ever!
