The Power of Replay

In 1986 the NFL adopted something called instant replay. Instant replay was meant to make the game fairer and more competitive but most of all to help the officials call the best game possible. In 1999 the league made a clause about limiting NFL to certain things. For example they cannot review penalties or things of that nature. Instant replay has changed the game so much that championships, perfect seasons, and playoff berths have been changed by some of the calls made by officials.

Ed Hochali

Allot of people have herd of instant replay but don’t actually know what it is. Instant replay is the replaying of video footage of an event or incident very soon after it has occurred. In television broadcasting of sports events, instant replay is often used during live broadcast, to show a passage of play which was important or remarkable, or which was unclear on first sight.

Some sports organizations allow referees or other officials to consult replay footage before making or revising a decision about an unclear or dubious play. This is variously called video referee, video umpire, instant replay official, television match official or third umpire. Other associations allow video evidence only after the end of the contest, for example to penalize a player for misconduct not noticed by the officials during play

NFL offical viewing replay

There are many examples of games and events that have changed because of instant replay. For example, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots where playing the Oakland raiders in the playoffs a few years back. Brady dropped back for a pass but as he was hit the ball slipped out and it was a fumble. Oakland received the ball in great position until the Pat’s challenged the play. The play was changed because of instant replay and the Patriots ended up winning the game.

People debate if instant replay needs to be fixed or if it’s working just fine. In my opinion it makes the game more accurate and really makes teams play to their best ability, where as others think that it is corruptible and puts the game out of the player’s hands. What do you think should be done about this, should we keep it, get rid of it, or change the rules accordingly?

-chieffan81