Instant Replay Has Ruined The NFL.

[Fins4ever]

Even the most anal person should agree that spending significant time reviewing and analyzing play after play is counterproductive and disrupts and slows the game down to the point it becomes boring.

Not just once, not 5 times, but all game long do we see calls be questioned and verified by more and more reviews. The kicker is that often times the call on the field is correct and the review overturns a correct call. There is no more trust for calls on the field from the refs. Why have them?

All the commercials were bad enough, but this is absurd. A 60 minute game now typically takes 3 1/2 hours or more. Gesh!

[Spider-Dan]

Even the most anal person should agree that spending significant time reviewing and analyzing play after play is counterproductive and disrupts and slows the game down to the point it becomes boring.

I do not agree at all.  During the era when instant replay was not allowed, I can assure you that I never said, "Well, sure, they got the call wrong, but at least they did it fast!"

I am a huge proponent of instant replay and think it should be expanded upon in other sports, as well.

P.S.  When was the last time you watched a Dolphins game when there was an instant replay on a key call and you thought, "I don't care what the call is, let's just get this game moving!"  Because I've never thought anything remotely close to that.

[Fins4ever]

I do not agree at all.  During the era when instant replay was not allowed, I can assure you that I never said, "Well, sure, they got the call wrong, but at least they did it fast!"

 At least they did it fast? LOL I guess you miss the entire point.

Officiating has clearly declined in recent years, not got better despite all the replays, at least in my opinion. It was a much better game before all the technology took over and slowed the tempo of the sport and took the officiating away from the officials. I don't expect you to agree with any of my opinions, as I don't with almost all of yours.

Your PS is just silly and does not warrant a response.

[Cathal]

That's ridiculous if you think instant replay has ruined football, just crazy talk. Lol

[MikeO]

Football needs instant replay. It's a no brainer. Gotta have it. I got no problem if it takes a while, as long as they get the call right!

[dolphins4life]

+1 for the support of instant replay here

[masterfins]

Disagree with the OP, I think Instant Replay in its current version is well suited.

[MikeO]

College instant replay is a 100X worse. Games go over 4 hours and 30 min all the time and its death to sit in the stands sometimes through all the silly delays!

[Pappy13]

The problem with instant replay as I see it is it's not being used like it was proposed. The proposal was that calls that were CLEARLY wrong should be overturned. If you can't look at it once or twice and say IT'S OBVIOUSLY WRONG, then the call on the field STANDS period. The problem is they have taken the calls to the absurd. Trying to determine the EXACT instant that the knee touched down and when the ball came out. You should NEVER do that. Was the call a fumble? Then unless IT'S CLEARLY WRONG, it's a fumble. Spending 3 or 4 minutes to determine maybe, perhaps, possibly, I think his knee may have been potentially down, is doing it ALL wrong. That's what happened today and it happened not once but TWICE. Those calls weren't CLEARLY wrong. They should NOT have been reversed in my opinion. They waisted 3 or 4 minutes just to make a JUDGEMENT call which was ALREADY done on the field initially. If it's going to be decided by a judgement call anyway, then leave it up to the refs on the field to make the call. The way it's being used now is BS. The replacement refs at least were using instant replay correctly. If it wasn't CLEARLY wrong then the call on the field stood.

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

[Landshark]

The problem with instant replay as I see it is it's not being used like it was proposed. The proposal was that calls that were CLEARLY wrong should be overturned. If you can't look at it once or twice and say IT'S OBVIOUSLY WRONG, then the call on the field STANDS period. The problem is they have taken the calls to the absurd. Trying to determine the EXACT instant that the knee touched down and when the ball came out. You should NEVER do that. Was the call a fumble? Then unless IT'S CLEARLY WRONG, it's a fumble. Spending 3 or 4 minutes to determine maybe, perhaps, possibly, I think his knee may have been potentially down, is doing it ALL wrong. That's what happened today and it happened not once but TWICE. Those calls weren't CLEARLY wrong. They should NOT have been reversed in my opinion. They waisted 3 or 4 minutes just to make a JUDGEMENT call which was ALREADY done on the field initially. If it's going to be decided by a judgement call anyway, then leave it up to the refs on the field to make the call. The way it's being used now is BS. The replacement refs at least were using instant replay correctly. If it wasn't CLEARLY wrong then the call on the field stood.

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

What do you expect from Gene STEELERTore who clearly hates the Dolphins?

[Pappy13]

What do you expect from Gene STEELERTore who clearly hates the Dolphins?

But it's not just Miami, it happens all over the league. Instant replay reviews have now been called into question which was NEVER the intent of instant replay. They shouldn't be trying to get EVERY CALL right. They should be trying to correct CLEARLY WRONG CALLS. That's what instant replay is for.

[Spider-Dan]

The problem with instant replay as I see it is it's not being used like it was proposed. The proposal was that calls that were CLEARLY wrong should be overturned. If you can't look at it once or twice and say IT'S OBVIOUSLY WRONG, then the call on the field STANDS period. The problem is they have taken the calls to the absurd. Trying to determine the EXACT instant that the knee touched down and when the ball came out. You should NEVER do that. Was the call a fumble? Then unless IT'S CLEARLY WRONG, it's a fumble.

If the call was CLEARLY WRONG, then they never would have gotten it wrong in the first place.  Q.E.D.

[Pappy13]

If the call was CLEARLY WRONG, then they never would have gotten it wrong in the first place.  Q.E.D.

That's the whole reason that instant replay was put into the NFL, because there were calls that were CLEARLY WRONG, but there was no way to change it. That's why instant replay was put into the game, to correct CLEARLY WRONG calls.

[Spider-Dan]

You're missing the point.  If it was SO OBVIOUS that the call should have went the other way, that's what they would have called in the first place!  Instant replay was not put in place for ridiculous blown calls (like the ones the replacements were making; e.g. a touchback called on a ball that never made within 5 yards of the end zone).  It was put in place to correct the close calls.  The officials can huddle together and fix the incredibly bad calls without need of replay, and they have done so for years.

Furthermore, your idea of what instant replay should be is already the exact policy of official review:  if there is not clear visual evidence that the call was wrong, the original call on the field stands.

The entire reason for the existence of instant replay is because of close calls that the officials messed up.  Sometimes they really messed them up.  Sometimes those calls had playoff implications.  But if you're in favor of messed-up close calls because they are faster than getting the call right, you're in the minority.

[Pappy13]

You're missing the point.

I'm not going to argue with you. Calls WERE being made that were CLEARLY wrong on replay. One look at a replay and it was OBVIOUS. Coaches and owners wanted a way to have those calls changed because they were CLEARLY wrong but there was NOTHING you could do about it. Prior to instant replay there was no way to fix it, you simply had to live with the fact that the ref called it wrong. That's why instant replay was wanted and that's what it was supposed to fix originally. That was 26 years ago. Today it's a completely different animal.

Furthermore, your idea of what instant replay should be is already the exact policy of official review:  if there is not clear visual evidence that the call was wrong, the original call on the field stands.

That's the policy, but I don't believe it's called that way. That's why I'm not missing the point. I don't give a shit about speeding up the game, it could take 4 hours for all I care, I just think they don't call it like the rule states. They look at it and if it's close they try to make a judgement call which way they think is right and then they decide whether to overturn it or not, but if it's that close they SHOULDN'T make a judgement call, that's already been done on the field, they should let the call on the field stand in that case. That doesn't happen a lot of times. In far too many cases they overturn it even when there's NOT clear visual evidence what the right call is even after replaying it. In the beginning the refs on the field were to be considered right if there was any question, ties go to the field you might say. Now the replay is the final say. Like both of those calls today in my opinion. Neither one was CLEAR, they could have gone either way, but the ref is so sure that he can tell from looking at the replay what the call SHOULD be that he overturns a call that was not CLEARLY wrong because they aren't trying to correct CLEARY wrong calls anymore, they are trying to get EVERY CALL RIGHT. That's a mistake in my opinion. Give the power back to the refs on the field and only overturn them when they are CLEARLY wrong.

They don't even explain it the same way that they use to. When they didn't reverse a call they used to simply say "after further review the call stands". Now they say "After further review the call is confirmed". Why did they make that change? Because a lot of casual fans don't understand the way the rule is written. It's not supposed to be overruled unless it's clear it's WRONG. But fans would see the replay and say the call was wrong even when it wasn't clearly wrong, just perhaps it was wrong. It was very close, but not CLEARLY wrong. Those calls wouldn't be overturned but fans wanted those calls overturned too because they felt it was the wrong call even if it was very close. After a while that's what the replay officials started doing and now they have even been told to change the terminology to make it seem like they got the call RIGHT when it's too close to call. We used to be satisfied with the call "standing" when it was close, now we have to get the call RIGHT.