In many cases, I can appreciate it. Technological advances making sure we get things right are a good thing.
But there are THREE specific replay challenges in THREE distinctly different sports I don't like, that slows down play and takes away from the spirit of "getting it right".
1) Football. NFL specific. "The Catch". It is as much about the rule as it is the replay. I don't like parsing every catch to see if a guy has "control" and the ball moves a mm or so when he goes to the ground. Come on. A catch is a catch. A trap is a trap. And that's that. To me, if you can't determine in 30-40 seconds if a guy caught the ball or not, then it is too close and murky to overturn. And that should be the rule. Again, I don't mind replay being utilized to right obvious and egregious bad calls. But when you have to parse frame by frame like it the Zapruder film and after 3 minutes determine that the ball moved an inch in his hands despite never leaving his possession the catch is overturned....that is BS. Get rid of the nonsense. 30 seconds to review catches. He either caught it, in bounds or he didn't. End of story.
2) Baseball. The tag. Again, did the tag beat the runner or not? That's it. But this carry through 30 seconds or so where they go frame by frame and parse it and determine that while the runner clearly beat the tag, somewhere as he goes to the base his finger comes off for a fraction of a second and the tag was still applied, or worse, the tag actually forced the hand to come off of the bag for that second and.....OUT! That was not the intent of replay. Just a horribly unnecessary replay and rule. Unless the runner slides obviously through the bag or overruns it and has to reach back.....stop challenging every close play because you know there is a 50/50 chance at some moment, a fraction of a second, the hand loses contact with the base, and mainly because the tag pushes the hand away. Again, not the intent of the rule or call.
3) Hockey. Offsides. This is so effed up on so many levels. First of all, as a Pens fan, I have seen us lose a series because of an obviously blown offsides call. Two things wrong about the replay challenge. Again, it should be simple, was he in before the puck or not? Bang/bang. As the rule is constructed now, you can gain the zone, hold the puck in for 4-5 minutes and score a goal. The coach can challenge that play from 5 minutes ago. And wipe out the goal and all the 5 minutes and reboot? Never mind the defensive team had 4-5 minutes to clear the puck, and the offsides didn't lead directly to a goal. It should be, the skater preceded the puck and on that play, it resulted in a goal. Then the offsides. Once again, because of replay, they parse frame by frame, you have to have your skate on the ice. So you can actually not completely beat the puck in but your skate along the blueline was not on the ice, so you are "offside", even though you really had no advantage and was not offsides. It is taking a simple rule, and applying so much complexity and nuance to it that was never intended. Worse, as we see with all the headshots, interference, etc...this was decided as an important rule of emphasis. Here's the solution.....the blueline is like the goalline, there is an imaginary plane the rises up from the blueline, and the offsides play to be reviewed must directly lead to a goal in that 20 seconds. If not....sorry.
This is where replay gets abused in my opinion. "Getting the call right" is getting abused and obfuscated to these 50/50 challenge Hail Mary's just because there is a shot, even though it was never something that would have been challenged before. It takes away from the game, and the spirit of the rules. AND here is the thing, in almost all of those cases, it is not some competitive advantage that was gained.
But there are THREE specific replay challenges in THREE distinctly different sports I don't like, that slows down play and takes away from the spirit of "getting it right".
1) Football. NFL specific. "The Catch". It is as much about the rule as it is the replay. I don't like parsing every catch to see if a guy has "control" and the ball moves a mm or so when he goes to the ground. Come on. A catch is a catch. A trap is a trap. And that's that. To me, if you can't determine in 30-40 seconds if a guy caught the ball or not, then it is too close and murky to overturn. And that should be the rule. Again, I don't mind replay being utilized to right obvious and egregious bad calls. But when you have to parse frame by frame like it the Zapruder film and after 3 minutes determine that the ball moved an inch in his hands despite never leaving his possession the catch is overturned....that is BS. Get rid of the nonsense. 30 seconds to review catches. He either caught it, in bounds or he didn't. End of story.
2) Baseball. The tag. Again, did the tag beat the runner or not? That's it. But this carry through 30 seconds or so where they go frame by frame and parse it and determine that while the runner clearly beat the tag, somewhere as he goes to the base his finger comes off for a fraction of a second and the tag was still applied, or worse, the tag actually forced the hand to come off of the bag for that second and.....OUT! That was not the intent of replay. Just a horribly unnecessary replay and rule. Unless the runner slides obviously through the bag or overruns it and has to reach back.....stop challenging every close play because you know there is a 50/50 chance at some moment, a fraction of a second, the hand loses contact with the base, and mainly because the tag pushes the hand away. Again, not the intent of the rule or call.
3) Hockey. Offsides. This is so effed up on so many levels. First of all, as a Pens fan, I have seen us lose a series because of an obviously blown offsides call. Two things wrong about the replay challenge. Again, it should be simple, was he in before the puck or not? Bang/bang. As the rule is constructed now, you can gain the zone, hold the puck in for 4-5 minutes and score a goal. The coach can challenge that play from 5 minutes ago. And wipe out the goal and all the 5 minutes and reboot? Never mind the defensive team had 4-5 minutes to clear the puck, and the offsides didn't lead directly to a goal. It should be, the skater preceded the puck and on that play, it resulted in a goal. Then the offsides. Once again, because of replay, they parse frame by frame, you have to have your skate on the ice. So you can actually not completely beat the puck in but your skate along the blueline was not on the ice, so you are "offside", even though you really had no advantage and was not offsides. It is taking a simple rule, and applying so much complexity and nuance to it that was never intended. Worse, as we see with all the headshots, interference, etc...this was decided as an important rule of emphasis. Here's the solution.....the blueline is like the goalline, there is an imaginary plane the rises up from the blueline, and the offsides play to be reviewed must directly lead to a goal in that 20 seconds. If not....sorry.
This is where replay gets abused in my opinion. "Getting the call right" is getting abused and obfuscated to these 50/50 challenge Hail Mary's just because there is a shot, even though it was never something that would have been challenged before. It takes away from the game, and the spirit of the rules. AND here is the thing, in almost all of those cases, it is not some competitive advantage that was gained.
