Are "official replays" doing more harm than good?

Who else is already sick of official replay in MLB? Not to mention the timesuck they've proven to be in the NCAA Tourney. And now the NFL is looking to bring into the equation the home office as well as the local replay official for every game (although this has the potential of speeding things up, I suppose).

Official replay hasn't served to improve the game, it's just served to make referees too important, particularly at the end of games -- and it's taken the spontaneous joy out of watching the contests, because you no longer are sure that you saw what you think you saw.

 

They're overused on insignificant portions of the game (clock reviews are really dragging down the NCAA Tourney), but I do think its important to get as many calls correct as possible. It's a balancing act that is leaning a little too heavily toward replay right now.

 

It would be better if it had never happened, but of course too late now. I think the NFL would be happy to officiate the games from a league office using drones. It isn't replay that's slowing down tournament games, it's the flagrant rules which make replay mandatory for what is a judgment call in the first place.

 

I'd much rather have referees and umpires discuss what they saw than rely too much on replay. In UConn vs. Villanova, one referee made a back court violation call, but another referee quickly approached and corrected him. Those types of calls need to be discussed.

Fouls, penalties and strikes tend to be judgment calls. I;m not a fan of replay for those, but I do want consistency from officials.

 

I'm tired of officials looking at replays and still making the wrong calls. In some instances, this has become ridiculous.

 

I'm in general against them because, as mentioned above, it robs the moment. Every single thing that happens becomes a bit less exciting because you never know if that's what *really* is going to count.

 

The easy solution would be replay officials who direct the game officials on calls. That would speed up the process immensely and cut back on the pomp of it all.

 

Particularly in football, where you have a minimum of probably 20 seconds between plays, if the replay booth can't make a call in that amount of time, then it probably isn't conclusive enough to overturn anyway. Let the guys in the booth just make a call and go with it.

Sometimes you get the feeling that the refs are just watching the broadcast replays we all see at home, rather than just having instant access to all available angles. The guys in the truck should be able to see all relevant angles right away.

 

I've always thought replays do nothing but provide cover for officials. "Be as incompetent as you want, replay will bail you out."

The level of officiating has, to me, has had a noticeable drop as replay has become a bigger part of the game.

 

Piggybacking on joe's point, I think we're going to see an enormous increase in balls down the line being ruled fair, because that's the more easily correctable mistake if replay indeed rules it a mistake. Let the play go, see if the runner scores from first, and then if it's a foul ball they can just send everyone back. Call it foul immediately and there's a whole can of worms opened up if it was in fact fair.

 

Don't forget the No. 1 reason for replay in football: A chance for another commercial break.

 

And the Kentucky game grinds to a halt for no good reason in order to argue over a second on the shot clock. WTF.