The right call

All sports should use available technology to review plays

I'm one of these weird people who happens to think that sports officials are absolutely amazing in the percentage of decisions they get right. But unlike a lot of people -- including many of the officials themselves -- I also happen to believe that we should use every possible means at our disposal to make sure the correct call is made.

Happily, more and more sports are coming around to this point of view. The National Basketball Association is the latest to admit that using the technology available in the 21st century might be a good idea -- especially at the end of a game. The NBA will now permit its officials to review tape to make sure that a player got a shot off before time ran out. NCAA basketball refs already have this aid. The National Hockey League started using film more than 10 years ago to certify that pucks had passed through the goalmouth. And, of course, the National Football League reinstated instant replay in 1999.

Why wouldn't every sport use tape? After all, racetracks have been employing the photo finish camera for decades for the benefit of gamblers. How about benefitting the integrity of the game?

Nothing is more maddening -- or more wrong -- than when television clearly shows us that an official doing his best has nonetheless made a bad call. But the decision stands because the official is not permitted to see what everybody else in America saw clearly on TV. That's insane.

Three arguments are always employed against the greater use of replay technology. One is that it takes too long. OK, you can't stop a game to re-examine at length every minute detail, but, surely, getting it right is better than staying wrong for the sake of expediency. Besides, everything else slows up games. Has it ever occurred to you that in a world where everything is faster only games are slower?

The NFL did make the effort last January to stop the Oakland-New England playoff game in the middle of a raging snowstorm to review a play. The original fumble call was overturned, and the Patriots went on to win the AFC Championship and then the Super Bowl. Someday, in a sport like baseball, an obvious mistake will not be corrected and the whole world will know that the wrong team won the title.

The second argument against using tape is that not every possible angle can be viewed. Well, yeah. But three or four angles are better than one. Nothing is ever going to be perfect. This logic always reminds me of the critics who point out the one case in a thousand where a seat belt actually caused a death and use that as a reason to not put on a seat belt the other 999 times.

Then, finally, there is the argument that if you use instant reply you're taking the "human element"out of officiating. Well, the human element in coaching and scouting and training has been supplemented by technology for years. Why shouldn't referees get the same support? I always thought that one of the best elements about being human was that we were smart enough to use what's at our disposal.

Baseball is operating without a safety net in its playoffs right now. It's nothing short of Luddism for baseball and other sports not to have replay available for all important games -- certainly for all postseason games. The purpose of officiating is to make the right call. It is an affront to the honor of a sport when the people who run it aren't absolutely dedicated to that ideal.

Sports Illustrated senior contributing writer Frank Deford is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com and appears each Wednesday on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. He is a longtime correspondent for HBO's Real Sports and his new novel, An American Summer (Sourcebooks Trade), is available now at bookstores everywhere.

 

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