James White's touchdown run in Sunday's Super Bowl 51 will go down as one of the most historic plays made in the NFL. Although fans in New England celebrated their fifth Super Bowl victory since Tom Brady and Bill Belichick joined the Patriots, fans in Atlanta are crying foul over White's touchdown.
Hundreds of fans took to Twitter following New England's 34-28 win claiming that White was short of the end zone. Had White been ruled short of the end zone, New England still would have had two chances to win the game on a touchdown.
Within seconds of White placing the ball over the goal line, the field filled with players and photographers and confetti shot out of cannons in the stadium. Had officials ruled on review that the play was not a touchdown, it would have been quite a mess to clean up.
It is worth noting that the NFL reviews all scoring plays.
But that didn't stop some Falcons fans from taking screen grabs of the final play, and posting them on social media to show that White was short of the end zone.
By rule, a touchdown is successful when any part of the ball is over the white line before the runner's knee is down. For a ruling to be reversed via instant replay, replay must be conclusive to overturn a referee's call.
Knee was technically down before ball crossed the line ? Hmm. #NotMySuperbowlChamps pic.twitter.com/tUeP35winE
— Konstantine (@Konstantine72) February 6, 2017
patriots knee was down before the ball crossed the line... pic.twitter.com/uxiQG9xu7l
— Cole (@jonathan_car19) February 6, 2017
Here is the final play:
IT'S OVER! IT'S OVER!
JAMES WHITE WINS IT FOR THE @PATRIOTS!
WHAT A GAME! #SB51 #PATRIOTS https://t.co/nZzQJGWRmC
— NFL (@NFL) February 6, 2017
