In a world where soon you can go online to place an order and a drone will deliver that to your house in thirty minutes or less, we still have old men running down the sidelines each Sunday, of a billion dollar empire, with a chain in their hand, trying to determine where they should place the football.
The recent error with the NFL officials in the Washington and New York Giants game, where the officials told head coach Mike Shanahan that it was first down, only to not give the first down and make it third down, it’s brought this issue back to the surface where it needs to stay until there is change. In a game of inches, the game still rests on old men with their best guess on how many to reward.
In 2006, the US Open introduced the Hawk-Eye technology to allow players to challenge calls with use of instant-replay to determine exactly where the ball landed. With the tennis ball moving at speeds in excess of 100mph and the fraction of an inch making the difference in being a champion or second-place, something more than the human eye is needed to ensure the proper call is made. The first instance of using enhanced technology in tennis to get the call right is dated back to 1974. Yet in 2013 the NFL, the biggest empire of them all, is left with a chain-gang comprised of old men in stripes.
How… why?
Dan Le Batard, host of the national afternoon show on ESPN Radio, has been on a tangent this week giving attention to this absurdity. He seems to be the lone voice on something that is so obvious. The money that this league and its teams are making ensures that the issue is not funding any new technology to get it right, so as fans who elevate the sport to its current mantle atop its peers, we’re left scratching our heads wondering why the league does not do more to make sure they get these calls right.
If Amazon is going to deliver my online purchase to my house via drone in less than a half hour, surely something as big and as profitable as the NFL can figure out how to make sure the football is placed properly and accurately, every time.
In many of the major sports, defense of these shortfalls was categorized under part of the game. MLB resisted using instant replay on out and safe calls on the bases for years because they said the element of human error among the umpires was a part of the lure of the game. I’d be confident to be so bold to say Armando Galarraga disagrees. MLB finally has come around on the issue because when the millions at home watching on television know what the right call is, the on-field umpire who’s being paid to get it right should be afforded the same opportunities as the people watching the game. What’s most important is you get it right, even if that takes a minute and a second look.
Simple instant replay doesn’t solve this issue for the NFL because despite all of the cameras pointed at every field every week, there are still plays that go to replay that they don’t have a proper angle to say with absolute certainty. It’s the difference in the referee saying the call on the field stands versus the call on the field was confirmed.
Despite the absurdity of it all, we will all gather around our televisions on Sunday to watch giants fight on a field over an inch. And then we will watch a group of men, many of whom we couldn’t distinguish from a greeter at Wal-Mart, decide where the ball should be placed. Most times they get it right, but no fan is content with most.
Tennis is not football, yet they seem to get what the NFL doesn’t want to acknowledge, increased technology can make the sport even more enjoyable.
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