senior vice president for football operations. 'Honest people can make mistakes'" (Brady 2A).The Jets-Seahawks game is yet another crucial game that needed instant replay to ensure that the correct team would win. With just seconds remaining at the end of a crucial game in the 1998 season, another destined referee faux pas is accomplished! Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde lunged for the goal line with the ball. The replay confirmed Testaverde was short, but the officials saw it differently. They ruled a game-winning touchdown, which received an overwhelming amount of debate in the days to follow. “Arguments over officials’ calls are as old as sports” (Brady 1A). Instant replay was instated into the NFL to eliminate the referee as playing the part of the scapegoat in losses. “Furthermore, NFL officials do not work full-time in football. Their ranks include high school principals, college professors, salesmen, corporate executives, a podiatrist (umpire Ed Fiffick), a California highway patrolman (field judge Al Jury), and a golf pro (referee Ron Blum)” (Brady 2A). Their counterparts in Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League are full-timers. Instant replay is no universal remedy. Without it, games would be much more controversial. Reporter Mark Starr asserts, Sports are not just games, much less results. They are also an eternal fan debate in which one of the central tenets is ‘We wuz robbed.’ Human fallibility may derail a few playoff dreams and even cost a few coaches their jobs. But every once in a while, as ‘the hand of God’ surely attests, it is the stuff of legends. . . .Truth is that bad calls, horrendous judgments, and idiotic decisions are part of the fabric of our games. They create controversy, which feeds the vast sports machine. And sometimes the worst calls, unfair as they may be, can make the games more...
