Watching the discussion on the forum about the offside call on the kickoff for Minnesota and the game-ending play in Miami-Va Tech has led me to start a new post with what many will call a stupid take, but hear me out.
Replay was created to correct the obvious wrongs -- the plays I always cite are the Don Denkinger and Jim Joyce plays.
It was not created to solve every mistake by an official on every play in every game.
It wasn't created to see if a runner sliding into a base came off the bag by 0.2 millimeters while the fielder holds the tag on the runner for four seconds.
It wasn't created to see if a basketball tipped off one player's fingernails instead of the other's in the first half of a non-conference NCAA basketball game.
If the call on the field is not obviously wrong and demonstrably so (in a very limited time frame), then the call should be upheld.
In the Miami game, I can't tell you if that was a catch or not. I don't know all of the relevant rules and casebook plays. But they took six minutes to make the call and I still haven't seen an accounting of what they saw to overturn the play.
The replay official is supposed to correct the obvious wrongs, not insert his/her own judgment.
Players don't play perfectly. Coaches don't coach perfectly. Officials don't call games perfectly. It's called being human.
Now that I have ranted, I'm fully aware that we are going to more replay and more automation (the automatic ball-strike calls, for which the technology is NOWHERE close, despite what you hear).
Games will continue to become more and more like video games, and that's not the direction that sports should go.
Now get off my lawn!
Replay was created to correct the obvious wrongs -- the plays I always cite are the Don Denkinger and Jim Joyce plays.
It was not created to solve every mistake by an official on every play in every game.
It wasn't created to see if a runner sliding into a base came off the bag by 0.2 millimeters while the fielder holds the tag on the runner for four seconds.
It wasn't created to see if a basketball tipped off one player's fingernails instead of the other's in the first half of a non-conference NCAA basketball game.
If the call on the field is not obviously wrong and demonstrably so (in a very limited time frame), then the call should be upheld.
In the Miami game, I can't tell you if that was a catch or not. I don't know all of the relevant rules and casebook plays. But they took six minutes to make the call and I still haven't seen an accounting of what they saw to overturn the play.
The replay official is supposed to correct the obvious wrongs, not insert his/her own judgment.
Players don't play perfectly. Coaches don't coach perfectly. Officials don't call games perfectly. It's called being human.
Now that I have ranted, I'm fully aware that we are going to more replay and more automation (the automatic ball-strike calls, for which the technology is NOWHERE close, despite what you hear).
Games will continue to become more and more like video games, and that's not the direction that sports should go.
Now get off my lawn!
