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CROSSHAIRS - Opinions & Commentary ^ | 11-28-09 | Michael Tank

[MTank50]

This Saturday morning in Arizona while I was waiting for the annual Arizona- Arizona State football game to kick off at 1:30 PM local time, I thought I would catch a little of the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game. There is nothing in football as fun or as entertaining as instate and conference college football rivalries. But isn't it too bad that somebody always has to take the fun out of our lives. Usually these party poopers are just an ex-spouse, the local police or the IRS. But sadly, in what seems far too many cases these days, it appears that these killjoys are a bunch of strangers who are always messing things up for "our own good."

Some time ago, and I really don't remember when nor do I care enough to look up when this idiocy all started, but some people thought instant replay would be a good idea for sports. Mainly this good idea came from people who were on the wrong side of a bad call. These ah… losers, wanted to make sure that by golly from now on there would be no more human errors by the officials in our sporting events that could influence the outcome of the contests. Enough was enough, apparently.

Now that this "instant" replay has infected college football it seems that the once all knowing and our word is final officials won't let any "big" play be judged on the field of play without a review from "up above." From fumbles to pass completions, from if the QB's hand was really going forward when he dropped the ball, to where the ball really was in the hands of the running back at the end of a 4th and inches, it is all "Under Review." And it is all redundant and ridiculous.

On the other side of the ball there are hardly any touchdowns anymore that are not automatically reviewed, even when they were obviously a TD. Now the main idea in football is to score touchdowns, yet now whenever a team scores one it's as if everybody involved is taken completely by surprise! How could that have happened? We better take a look at it "upstairs."

"The ruling on the field is that the play resulted in a touchdown. However since we must be sure that the player had control of the ball when he crossed the goal line, had at least one foot down before he went out of bunds or was not an illegal alien, we will now review the pay."

Ten to fifteen minutes later, "After further review the ruling on the field has been confirmed and the result of the play is a touchdown." Gezzz…

In all honesty about the only thing I haven't seen reviewed are field goal attempts and the color of the cheerleaders' underwear. Everything else under the football sun is reviewable, well unless there was an inadvertent whistle.

With this artificial aid of instant replay there is no longer a natural flow to the games anymore as they are constantly being interrupted to review something or another on what seems to be just about every other play. Meanwhile the network breaks for yet another commercial when the ref goes "under the hood" and we are left to sit around wondering what the final answer will be like we're watching a live action version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?"

The results are that one hour of actual play takes three hours plus to finish. And "they" want to add instant replay to baseball? May the good Lord help us if they do, otherwise everybody pack a lunch and a supper because it will be a very long day at the old ballpark, without extra innings.

For example take this morning's OU-OSU game for instance. With a local time slot of 10:30 AM to 2:00 PM this game was still in the first quarter an hour after it started because of all the official reviews. To play the first thirty minutes in this ballgame took over two hours! Yet the half time intermission and the second half of play were completed by 2:12 PM.

This brings into question just what, and who, determines which plays will be reviewed and which won't be reviewed as often plays that are similar to others which were reviewed are not reviewed.

Or, as in the case of this mornings' OU-OSU game why were there so many plays reviewed in the first half but not in the second. These two teams were still making the same plays as they were in the first half weren't they? Can officials and the networks be cutting back on what they deem reviewable plays as the games that are running too long progress?

Furthermore to add to the unnecessary confusion no reviewed play can be reversed with how it was called on the field without what they call "indisputable evidence" that this play had been called incorrectly by the officials in the first place. Leave it to today's society to muddle up a simple game like football with legalize. We tune in to watch a football game and end up watching Perry Mason.

The major problem with this is that while we can all see the officials on the field and can somewhat understand why they have made a call one way or the other, we are now forced to sit by while some eye in the sky Big Brother, who we never see, makes the ultimate ruling. This invisible "god" now has the final word as this OZ like character determines if the officials were right or wrong and it is he that decides if the evidence is "indisputable," or not.

Man, talk about Power!

While Sun Devil fans are all hoping that the ASU tailback really didn't fumble the ball on the their own goal line this replay "Judge" is sitting up in the Penthouse sticking voodoo pins in a Sparky The Sun Devil doll while wearing a Wildcat jersey and saying that it is a fumble because it only looks like the ASU runner's left knee touched the ground first just before the ball came out. So the ruling on the field stands, as the evidence to overturn the call on the field is not indisputable, 1st and goal Arizona on the ASU one. I mean really, who knows?

Well, okay, I was just kidding about all that. As a god we all know that this replay OZ is supposed to love and treat us all equally. Well except for Southern Cal, the best team money can buy, just ask Reggie Bush. Besides any old man who still has more hair than Warren Beatty when he was twenty, like USC's Pete Carroll, had to make a deal with either the Devil or our football OZ.

The whole idea with this instant replay nonsense was to take the human error by officials out of the equation. But that is perfection and everybody knows that there is no such animal. Yet for some reason we still try? Many plays are still called wrong or go unnoticed thus giving one team an unfair edge. Even with using the reviews they often get it wrong. It has been said that you can call offensive holding on just about every play. In my view I believe that same goes for offensive pass interference with the way many receivers push off to get separation. But why take the fun out of the game by blowing whistles every sixty seconds? Blown or missed calls are just as much a part of football as TD's and tackles.

Sports are supposed to teach the fans and players life lessons. In real life, just like in sports, sometimes you get a raw deal with a bad call. Overcoming these challenges makes us stronger. It tells us something about our society when we expect Big Brother to step in and say, "Now wait a minute, lets take a look at this and see if we got it right." In real life when you don't "get the call" going your way, right or wrong, you have to deal with it, adapt and overcome the situation. Isn't that part of what sports is supposed to teach us?

Besides, even though this is now big money for many in sports, the winning and losing of these games hardly determine our futures or fortunes. Well unless you are stupid enough to bet the rent on the outcome of a bunch of twenty-year olds kicking a ball around. Whether ASU or Arizona won today did not change my life all that much, besides there is always next year. As a Cub fan nobody knows that better than I. In fact unless you are a Detroit Lions' fan we all should know this.

Taking the human element of error out of a football game makes it less exciting, and less memorable. Many of us cannot tell you who scored a TD in a rivalry game but we sure can tell you who fumbled for the other team at a crucial moment but then refs gave the ball back to Ohio State! Moments like that feed a rivalry even more than wins and losses.

Besides why should the officials get a break on bad calls when the players and coaches don't? When the players and coaches make a mistake they don't get an instant replay, do-over or a mulligan. They just have to live with it. So why are we being so generous to those guys in the stripe shirts?

Likewise things have a way of evening out. One time your team may get "robbed" by a bad call, but at another time they will be benefit from a bad call against someone else. Such is the way of life, and football. We should get rid of the instant replay reviews before it ruins the games. If this is the kind of nonsense that you want in a game then just send everybody home and televise Madden 2010.

In the meantime enjoy the Holiday Season with all of the Bowl Games, for regardless of what lunacy the BCS can come up with this year, its still football.

God Bless America

Semper Fi, Mike

"Copyright 2009. Michael E. Tank All rights reserved. No part of this document may be copied, faxed, electronically transmitted, or in any other manner duplicated without express written permission of the author."

[jessduntno]

“Some time ago, and I really don’t remember when nor do I care enough to look up when this idiocy all started, but some people thought instant replay would be a good idea for sports.”

Two words: Larry Barnett.

And yeah, I’m still pissed...