Fansided

NFL could move all replay reviews to central location, on-field officials would no long view them

By Josh Hill

December 2, 2012;Baltimore, MD, USA;Referee Al Riveron goes into the Instant Replay booth during the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens at M
December 2, 2012;Baltimore, MD, USA;Referee Al Riveron goes into the Instant Replay booth during the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens at M /
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December 2, 2012;Baltimore, MD, USA;Referee Al Riveron goes into the Instant Replay booth during the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens at M
December 2, 2012;Baltimore, MD, USA;Referee Al Riveron goes into the Instant Replay booth during the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens at M /

It’s no secret that this season has seen it’s fair share of terrible officiating. It takes some pretty bad calls to make us want the replacement refs back but clearly a few of the “real” referees hit their heads a few times while they were away from the game. That’s really the only explanation for the terrible calls we’ve seen this year.

According to Peter King, this is one of the reason the NFL is apparently considering taking all replay reviews out of the hands of officials on the field and at the stadium and instead conducting all reviews at a central location. This location would likely be at league headquarters in New York and it’s a strategy that has ben successfully used by the NHL in the past.

You might be asking yourself why the NFL isn’t leading the way when it comes to getting reviews right and speeding up the games, but we’ve seen how juvenile the league really is in the past few years and it’s clear this hasn’t been on their agenda. But with fans, players and coaches starting to become more right than the league on almost every call, the NFL is smartly going to reassess things and get the upper hand once again.

There’s no timetable for this move to be made, and it sounds like the NFL is just thinking about it at this stage. Still, centralizing replays to one location and having someone radio the call to officials in the stadium seems to be the way to go. When the NHL is more innovative than your league, you know you’re dragging your feet.

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