Why the NFL needs to break its reliance on instant replay

Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz spoke to Fox NFL rules analyst and former NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino about how officials rely too often on video replay and what changes could be made to make the system better. Hear the full conversation on the “Zero Blitz” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

JASON FITZ: I don’t want to live in a world where an official needs a second after a play to be like, eh, that was probably holding, OK, I’ll throw the call. I just don’t think that there’s that amount of grace. You just don’t have that time. You’re going to make a mistake. So you might as well be decisive. If you start questioning yourself when you’re making thousands of mistakes–

DEAN BLANDINO: Exactly right. And I think that’s the biggest issue right now with replay and technology, which is great. I think it’s turning– it’s becoming– where it was designed to be just an aid on big, game-changing plays, now it’s becoming so ingrained, that the officials are deferring to replay. And the thing is, rule on what you see. If you don’t see it, all right, let it go. But if you see it and the runner’s down or it’s an incomplete pass or it’s holding, make the call and be decisive.

And you might be incorrect at the end of the day. But you’ve got to make those decisions. And that’s where– that separates the average officials from the really good officials, the ones that can block out the noise, forget about replay, officiate the game, and let replay come in when it’s needed.

JASON FITZ: Belichick has long since aspired for a world where anything could be challenged. And that’s been pushed back too. But as somebody that’s done this for so long, would that benefit? I mean, having a challenge left I could use on any play seems like could help some of this.

DEAN BLANDINO: Yeah, I like it. We did it in the XFL last year. We gave the coaches one challenge. We were very happy with the results. And I did it….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-nfl-needs-break-reliance-231216250.html

Author : Yahoo Sports Videos

Publish date : 2023-12-14 23:12:16

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