Originally Posted by JD10367
Everything should be reviewable. It already is, off the record: thanks to technology, we have the ability to replay what just happened. And then everyone at home, and in the stadium watching the Jumbotrons, sees exactly what happened, and even the refs themselves might look up and think privately, "Oops, ****ed up that one." Why, in this day and age, we still have AARP-eligible fat guys with bad eyes deciding these games is beyond me. Already this year we've seen a couple of teams get screwed by calls or non-calls or wrong calls (Chiefs included). Oh, it's nice when the NFL sends a team an apology letter a few days later saying, "Oops, we ****ed up the call." Too bad they don't send a W in your stat column at the same time. They already have the challenge rule, and the replay booth on the field, and the refs can already stop play and review something in the last two minutes of the game. Just go whole-hog already, and have a senior official in the booth (with the power to override the on-field call) with access to the same replays we see at home. Get rid of that stupid on-field booth; it doesn't work. It's supposed to take a minute or less but always takes five, by the time the old bastard walks over to the booth, shoots the shit with the guy upstairs, watches it a few times... If they move the "final word" upstairs it'll happen a lot quicker and smoother.
And this isn't just for football. I think all sports should have more thorough refereeing by video evidence. There are slight inroads being made (whether a baseball is fair or foul, whether a hockey puck crosses the goal line, whether a basketball shot leaves the player's hands before the clock hits double zeroes) but it's not enough. How is an on-field ump supposed to catch the split-second difference between a runner's toe hitting the bag and the baseman catching the ball? Why do we have to watch an ump punch out a batter on a third strike when everyone at home can see on the replay that it was about six inches outside the strike zone? Sports are now multimillion-dollar businesses and, as such, should be reffed accordingly.
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