Victory Is Mine

Instant Replay

This geezer in the Seattle Times thinks that, just because Instant Replay isn't perfect, we should abolish it. He doesn't care if calls are made incorrectly, he thinks technology ruins the purity of the game. Pardon my french, but homeboy is full of shit. I'm totally down with the argument that personal fouls and other sorts of penalties should be reviewable, but the move should be made towards ACCURACY, to hell with purity. Purity should not have to come at the cost of fairness.

And hell, as a Seattle Times writer, this guy should have some sympathy for replay given the infamous blown call in the 1998 Seahawks-Jets game that cost the Hawks a chance to make the playoffs.

That brings me to my biggest gripe with the NFL's replay rule: why the hell is pass interference non-reviewable? I'm annoyed with the concept of a trailing team launching a ball sixty yards downfield as the clock ticks down more in hope of drawing a PI call rather than an actual catch. Calls like that change games. It happens, and it fucks teams. A call that huge should be a no-brainer decision on using replay.

I sympathize with purists in some respects - the purity of watching a baseball game at Wrigley or Fenway versus watching it at ad-laden SafeCo or Edison Field - but their adherence to abolishing replay is absurd.

posted by Publius @ 12:49 PM