'Pereira proposes having a video official as part of each crew, allowing him to correct mistakes in real time as a sort of “sky judge.” “Not a replay official, an eighth official, part of the crew, travels with the crew . . . and give him the ability to be on site in an enclosed booth with a technician, to look at the play on television in real time and correct obvious mistakes that are big plays and involve player safety and pass interference, and be able to correct some of this stuff” Pereira said. “. . .He’s able to, in 15 seconds time, correct a mistake. I think that’s what needs to be done, quite frankly, to win back the confidence to a degree. It’ll look a little strange, but it won’t happen more than probably two or three times a game. It’s kind of a fail-safe to me.” easy fix for next year.
I completely understand the need and desire for replay officials...to overturn OBVIOUS missed calls but it's become such a ridiculous practice. When we're getting down to the absolute micro-second, zoomed in super-close, nitty gritty detail of each and every play, it takes the human factor of officiating out of the game. The game is played by men...human beings who make errors on the field. The game is officiated by men...human beings who make errors on the field. The entire purpose of replay was to overturn blatantly obvious missed calls, not to dissect a call to the nano-second. If this is what we truly want, then we might as well just have coaches playing on auto and broadcasting Madden.
It's an inevitable result of broadcasting the game in HD with slowmo. If you have that system which can show up errors but leave those errors uncorrected then you end up with disgruntled fans. People won't accept that mistakes have to be put up with. They will want solutions. They do want solutions. And it does seem ridiculous that you can have people on the other side of the world watching the game on a screen in HD, but no refs using the same tech - but having to walk over to a giant unit. Having one or more officials in a room somewhere watching a game feed would allow quick analysis, even quicker than now, and it technologically very easy to accomplish. It's essentially moving that sideline monitor inside, with a ref sitting their the whole time. The only question that remains is how often, or how much, to involve him or her.
I have LONG wanted every single play to be handled this way. Have an official watching at all times who can stop the action if the guys on the field miss something big. He talks to the ref, tells him to stop the game, they talk for 30 seconds to hash it out, and the right call is made. The technology is there. They should want to get it right.
