Replay is needed for better officiating

When I saw Colts coach Jim Mora upset about two officiating calls that went against his team in the Colts-49ers game a few weeks ago, (see story, page 13), I knew exactly how he felt. No coach deserves to have a bad call cost his team a game, but it's bound to happen to anyone who stays in the coaching profession for very long.

Officiating in the NFL is a difficult job, and errors are bound to happen. But the inevitability of a bad call is no excuse for allowing it to stand.

The best remedy for a bad call? Instant replay. I was a big proponent of instant replay for many years when I was on the league's competition committee, and I see no reason why it shouldn't be used today. We have the technology; let's use it. I don't buy the argument that because officials are human, mistakes will be made and, what the heck, it's all part of the game.

If structured properly, instant replay can be made more efficient than it was during its six-year run (1986-91), when people complained about the inordinate amount of time it took for calls to be reviewed. One reason for those lengthy delays is that, at the beginning, some officials were openly hostile to the whole concept of instant replay, and they sabotaged the process. Their attitudes changed once they realized instant replay wasn't going to be quickly eliminated, and the process improved.

Most officials do a superior job considering the circumstances. Unfortunately, when they miss, they really miss. Two calls in particular seem to create problems because of their subjectivity: Pass interference and offensive holding. On pass interference, an official sometimes gets so caught up in the drama of the moment that he'll throw his flag when no violation has occurred. Such "phantom" calls scare players and coaches to death. And one official's offensive holding call is often another's non-call. When I was on the competition committee, we had one umpire call 48 holding penalties one year; another umpire, who worked just as many games, called seven.

As a coach, you just hope a bad call doesn't go against your team. And if one does that there's enough time left to overcome it.

Bill Walsh coached the 49ers to three Super Bowl titles and is an exclusive NFL analyst for The Sporting News this season. E-mail him at walsh@sportingnews.com, and then look for his weekly e-mailbag and picks at sportingnews.com. Chat with Walsh every other Wednesday on AOL (keyword: LIVE).

COPYRIGHT 1998 Sporting News Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning