I am sure that I am in the minority here, but I am not a fan of instant replay to the extent we are using it now. We have taken sport and tried to make it into science of sorts. It used to be if the call was wrong, you could complain, but then you got back out there and kept going. We knew that during a game there would be bad calls going all directions and somehow, in the cosmic idea of balance, they would even themselves out.
Now we have this idea that every call has to be right, that we have to cry and complain when a call goes against us, and that games are decided by 1 bad call. It's just not true. In the flow of the game you have many opportunities that lead to wins and losses.. and our hyper focus on making everything right with replay makes this into more of a legal battle than athletes showing their resilience and ability to deal with diversity... not so much now, especially for fans and commentators.
More over, with replay we have gotten to the point that we have to define athletic moves and the basics of each sport (say, a catch) by some mathematical equation that nobody seems to understand. It slows the game down, it complicates the game, and it makes it hard for fans and players to "stay in the moment" which is vital for sport.
I know it won't happen, but how about a return to the "good old days" when you can say it was a catch because you knew a catch when you see it. With technology as it is, we have let the genie out of the bottle and won't be able to get her back in... but maybe we can get rid of some of the silliness through simplification of rules and use of replay. Let's free the players to play the game instead of making the officials the third team on the field.
And here is the thing.. I am a Patriots fan. I would have ruled that Pittsburgh caught that ball. My team should have lost. But because the refs turned it over, and Big Ben made a stupid pass afterwards (see, the catch did NOT decide the game, Ben did) my team won. So its not like I am upset because my team lost, or I am a Patriot Hater.... anyway.
Now we have this idea that every call has to be right, that we have to cry and complain when a call goes against us, and that games are decided by 1 bad call. It's just not true. In the flow of the game you have many opportunities that lead to wins and losses.. and our hyper focus on making everything right with replay makes this into more of a legal battle than athletes showing their resilience and ability to deal with diversity... not so much now, especially for fans and commentators.
More over, with replay we have gotten to the point that we have to define athletic moves and the basics of each sport (say, a catch) by some mathematical equation that nobody seems to understand. It slows the game down, it complicates the game, and it makes it hard for fans and players to "stay in the moment" which is vital for sport.
I know it won't happen, but how about a return to the "good old days" when you can say it was a catch because you knew a catch when you see it. With technology as it is, we have let the genie out of the bottle and won't be able to get her back in... but maybe we can get rid of some of the silliness through simplification of rules and use of replay. Let's free the players to play the game instead of making the officials the third team on the field.
And here is the thing.. I am a Patriots fan. I would have ruled that Pittsburgh caught that ball. My team should have lost. But because the refs turned it over, and Big Ben made a stupid pass afterwards (see, the catch did NOT decide the game, Ben did) my team won. So its not like I am upset because my team lost, or I am a Patriot Hater.... anyway.
