Last week featured the annual NFL owners meetings in Boca Raton, Florida. Some of the many topics discussed at the meetings included follow-ups with the NFL teams involved in moving to Los Angeles, new rules changes, and the possible expansion of replay. ESPN’s John Clayton reported that the NFL’s competition committee submitted eight rule change proposals and seven were accepted. Of the seven rule changes, none included additions to the replay system. However, it remains clear that expansion of the replay system continues to be discussed at the meetings. One replay idea that came up at the NFL owners meetings is the addition of another replay official.
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According to a Yahoo! Sports article, the league is cautious about the idea of adding an additional referee to improve instant replay operations. NFL V.P. of officiating, Dean Blandino, believes that the difficulty for the league is maintaining the balance of implementing new technology while also maintaining the human aspect of officiating. Blandino mentioned during an interview that, “As the technology gets better, it becomes more feasible. So we just have to continue to monitor that. But we can’t lose that human element. The officials on the field for the most part have the best vantage point. The rules are written in a way to allow for full-speed officiating.”
While the human element of officiating is essential to the game, instant replay review continues to be a polarizing issue in the eyes of the fans. Fans at home can often see mistakes made by referees during games, and want the mistakes to be rectified. Furthermore, it becomes difficult for fans to stomach the idea that there are rules that limit what can and can’t be reviewed. As mentioned in a recent SI.com article, this area in the rules is also being discussed at the owners meetings. Given the fact that all officiating mistakes can be rewatched over and over again, it can be frustrating when fans and coaches are told that some mistakes are correctable and others are not.
Another common issue that fans have with instant replay review is the way in which it disrupts the flow of the game. As it currently stands, instant replay review slows the game down because it forces referees to stop the game and look at an instant replay. By adding an official in a booth above the field to watch the game on TV, it would essentially end the need for long delays. The TV referee could communicate instantly with referees on the field and speed up the entire process. This would effectively end a major issue that fans have. However, it does also remove a significant part of the human aspect of on-field review.
Replay has already grown significantly in recent years, and it is a subject that will not be going away soon for the NFL. One of the biggest additions for the league was the creation of GameDay Central in Manhattan. GameDay Central is the league headquarters for all replays. The NHL hatched the idea, but the NFL quickly adapted the replay center to be efficient and exert great influence on all the games played. In addition to the replay center, the NFL is expanding its partnership with Microsoft to include replay capabilities on their Surface Pro 3 Tablets that are placed on the sidelines of every team. The Microsoft tables will be tested with replay functionality and handed out to NFL officials, which may be another way for the league to avoid having referees watch the game on TV from a booth.