There never will be a solution to correcting wrong officiating calls in the NFL because one way or another, a human must make a call. There is a better way to do it, though, and Dan Rooney had the idea years ago.
Rooney told me when replay was in its infancy as a means to “get the calls right” that his suggestion was a simple one: Add a member to each officiating crew and put him upstairs in a booth so he can watch the game on a TV screen and also view replays.
He would have the same authority as the officials on the field to call penalties, but most importantly for other purposes. He could discuss a called penalty with the rest of the crew if it were obvious to him it was not a penalty. They do that now at times when a flag is thrown — the officials huddle, and then decide there was no penalty.
An official in the booth easily could have thrown a flag on that blatant pass interference penalty in New Orleans that was missed. (It would be a long way to throw it, so they’d have to come up with an alternative flag such as a buzzer.) He could easily have waved off the flag on the phantom roughing-the-passer penalty on Tom Brady in Kansas City. He could have canceled the PI against Joe Haden in New Orleans or called the Los Angeles Chargers for the obvious false start at Heinz Field.
None of that should take any longer than one of the officials on the field making a call – or waving one off.
If indeed they would add an official in the booth — and there seems to be more support for that around the NFL since the missed PI in New Orleans — the owners and competition committee would have to massage how they want it to work.
Would the official upstairs also be involved in replay, able to authorize a review at any time? Or would that be handled the way it is now? Would you want that official upstairs to call holding or wave off holding penalties? That last one could lead to chaos and lengthen the game time.
The play in New Orleans is driving the NFL’s movers and shakers to at least look at alternatives. That’s how it goes if something like that happens near the end of championship games. But these kinds of calls and non-calls happen way too often, as the Steelers experienced this year. The Brady phantom roughing penalty drew plenty of attention because replay showed it did not happen. However, close observers noted an illegal block downfield by Kansas City that led to a large gain and ultimately a late touchdown that temporarily put the Chiefs ahead.
While we’re at it, let’s suggest a few more changes, even if they don’t put an official upstairs:
— Alter pass interference to make it a 15-yard penalty unless it’s egregious, then put it at the spot of the infraction, as it is now. Having a quarterback throw a deep pass from his 40 and an official calling pass interference at the 10 – a 50-yard penalty – just isn’t fair unless the defender clearly blows up the receiver in order to prevent a reception. Like the one in New Orleans.
— Allow all plays to be reviewed, but do not give the coaches more than two challenges unless they get their first two right, as it is now. It makes little sense for a coach to be able to challenge the spot of the football and not pass interference.
— Do away with the use of instant replay altogether. Too radical? If the NFL is not going to totally embrace the technology and use it to enhance the officials’ calls all the way, then scrap it. They preach about “getting the calls right” yet refuse to allow that to happen on many plays.
And even when they use it, often they get it wrong. That punt in Kansas City that was first ruled a fumble by New England’s Julian Edelman was overturned by replay, presumably in the league office where Al Riveron holds court.
CBS replayed that play so many times it looked like the Zapruder film. You still could not determine for certain whether it touched Edelman or not. Yet Riveron overturned it, ruling it did not touch Edelman. Replay rules require “indisputable visual evidence” in order to overturn a call that was made on the field.
Anyone see that on that play?
— One more: All scoring plays are subject to automatic review. But what about the non-scoring plays, those close to the goal line where a runner or receiver might have broken the plane but the officials ruled he had not? Those are only subject to review on a coach’s challenge or in the final two minutes of each half. That should be altered to allow for an automatic review if the play is that close to scoring.
First Published: January 25, 2019, 11:30 a.m.