The NFL’s foolish quest for perfection

[Hoofbite]

I'm okay with the idea of a review system, but not the current NFL review system.

They should eliminate automatic reviews entirely. The current implementation is horrible because it treats scoring plays and turnovers as though they are the only plays that actually matter in the game. Crossing the goal line shouldn't be a determining factor when it comes to assessing whether or not the player caught the ball at his own 30-yard-line before sprinting to the endzone. Setting a team up at the goal line due to a piss poor call isn't so different from the play ending in a score that someone can rationally say that one outcome deserves automatic review while the other doesn't.

Furthermore, challenges should be granted any time a team has a timeout to sacrifice. I wouldn't even put a limit on it. If you have a timeout to burn, you can challenge. If by some miracle a coach pulls off a half-dozen challenges in a game by successfully getting calls overturned then who cares? Maybe we should start asking what the officiating crew is doing if they're getting calls wrong that often.

Remove the automatic review and allow any team to challenge a play as long as they are willing and able to sacrifice a timeout for it.

 

[Toomany10pins]

Call the game like they did in the early 90s.

Get rid of the illegal contact and defensive holding nonsense except when it's blatant.

Get rid of replay on interference.

Stop throwing penalties on punts and kickoffs when the penalty is far from the play.

Knock off all the illegal helmet calls that are borderline at best.

Get rid of the formation penalties like "the receiver covered up the end." Who cares? There's literally no advantage.

I could go on and on.

One thing I do like is the emphasis on offensive pass interference now. That's good.

Excellent points.

 

[TwentyOne]

IMO NFL executives continue to foolishly believe that a football game using human referees can somehow be called without human error. This year the NFL game has “evolved” to the point where the guys wearing the stripes and their “bosses” in a TV booth in New York are becoming the centerpiece of the game itself rather than the actual players of the game.

In its quest to see every penalty (or non-penalty), every catch, every fumble or now even every possible pass interference called correctly, we now have a mess each game. Penalties this year are up astronomically and it’s making the game less enjoyable.

I have watched pro football since 1964, when my dad took me at 6 years old to see the Cowboys play in the Cotton Bowl. Here are some truths I believe about football and sports in general that we should all accept:

• There will ALWAYS be blown calls because human beings are involved. With or without instant replay.
• 99.9999% of the time, the refs don’t cause a team to lose. Losers usually find a way to blame losing on something beside the plays they didn’t make.
• The current use of looking at countless plays over and over in slow motion is not making the game officiated better.
• Holding (offense and defense) and pass interference could be called almost every play. If it’s not at the point of attack or not affecting the play at all, I would rather see less penalties than more.
• We as fans need to accept that just as in life, sports are NOT always fair.

Some may disagree but I would rather see a much simpler solution to all this:

• Get rid of the new PI rule. It hasn’t made the game better.
• Stop with the parade of holding penalties. It’s ridiculous!
• Keep the challenge flag rule as it was in the past to limit how many times it can be used.
• The NFL executives need to stop pretending that a perfect game can ever be called.

I would rather watch a game where less penalties are called, even to the point where the refs miss a few calls than this ticky-tacky flag parade we are getting each week.

To me bringing back the challange option is not about making the game better. Its about having more opportunities for game interruptions and so having more slots for ads. The NFL is all about revenue not the game itself.

But to come back to your argumentation. I do think there will be always controversional calls. This is not a perfect game. Leave it that way, because that IS what makes it so great. It is played by humans who are not perfect and so should be called only by humans who are not perfect too.

I dont need nothing else.

Btw, good post.