“Those who can’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”
...or whatever version of that quote you like best ;)
Many people have been complaining about replay in sports lately. Nick Wright, for example, has said the following two statements in the last week: “Replay, in all sports except tennis, is just awful." and “the officiating has been damaged by having replay. You see it every weekend, where a pass is clearly-- a quarterback's throwing the ball, and the referees are like eh, let's not blow it dead.”
Many people have been complaining about replay in sports lately. Nick Wright, for example, has said the following two statements in the last week: “Replay, in all sports except tennis, is just awful." and “the officiating has been damaged by having replay. You see it every weekend, where a pass is clearly-- a quarterback's throwing the ball, and the referees are like eh, let's not blow it dead.”
Nick Wright, and everyone who agrees with statements like those, have forgotten the past. Nick Wright also said this week, when Chris Carter sarcastically said "oh, so let's just go back to that" (when Wright was complaining how life used to be without replay), Wright responded with "Absolutely." Those people have forgotten how bad life was without today's instant replay.
My two examples (of many):
Example 1: Broncos vs Steelers 2011. Playoffs. Broncos had
dominated the first half of the football game. In the middle of the third quarter, the Steelers
start a drive in a pretty much "score or lose" situation. The score was
20-6. Ben Roethlisberger throws a backwards lateral to Mike Wallace which is
dropped. A Broncos’ defensive player picks it up at the Steeler's own 17 yard line - essentially the dagger that would have ended the game. However, back then, refs
weren't letting plays play out like they do now. They weren't airing on the
side of caution. Refs decided to call in an "incomplete forward
pass." Replay shows it was very obviously a backwards lateral and thus a
fumble. But since it was initially ruled an incomplete pass, it was unreviewable. So a
horribly wrong call lets Pittsburgh keep possession instead of the Broncos having it in the red-zone. Steelers end up scoring a touchdown on that drive; and with
that momentum eventually tie the game and had a chance to win it in regulation. They did forced overtime.
Long story short - even though the Broncos ended up winning in
overtime; that game should have been over a long time ago. The refs made a
non-questionable wrong call that could have changed the outcome of this playoff game. IF ONLY the ref had done exactly
what Nick Wright and others are complaining about! If only “the referees (were)
like eh, let's not blow it dead.” That would have saved the horrible, nearly
game changing bad call.
In the fourth quarter of that same game, Ron Harper makes a
buzzer beater from the corner for the Bulls in the last 4 minutes. Replay shows
he didn't get it off in time. But the refs incorrectly decided it did.
That was a 5 point swing on bad shot clock calls alone in which
replay would have shown they were obviously wrong and easily correctable. Bulls
won ended up winning that game by only ONE point (and thus the finals as well).
I would much rather have these controversial replay
calls than go back to having those few non-questionably wrong calls that rob a team from their chance of winning it all. Replay has tremendously helped sports to
eliminate that bad call that sends teams home and changes history. We
don't really remember that because replay is awesome and has fixed most of
that. Today we are spoiled. People are getting so worked up on debatable
calls. We are living in such a privileged time is sports! One where the only
calls we argue about are calls that are questionable instead of calls that are
non-questionably wrong. Today's replay has pretty much eliminated the
"Oops. We made the wrong call and now you're eliminated. Too bad!"
mistakes. Thank you replay!
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