Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Sports & Recreation Lets See That Again Lets See That Again As Jerome Bettis walks toward the center of the field on Thanksgiving Day of 1998, he has no idea what is about to happen. This event will be the subject of controversy for days to follow. Bettis and his Pittsburgh Steelers have just finished regulation play against the Detroit Lions and are ready for the coin toss, which will precede the overtime period. Referee Phil Luckett tosses the coin up in the air as Bettis calls “Tails.” The coin lands with tails up. The referee then tells the Lions’ captains that they have won the toss and asks them what they elect to do. In total amazement, Bettis insists that he said, “Tails,” and his Steelers won the toss! But Referee Phil Luckett disagrees with Bettis and allows the Lions to start out overtime with the ball. Detroit goes on to win the controversial overtime period. If instant replay had been implemented at this time, it would have shown that Bettis did indeed call “Tails,” which would most likely have changed the outcome of the game. Instant replay should be permanently implemented into the National Football League (NFL). First, instant replay allows a referee to review the previous play in an NFL game. It was in use from 1986-1991 and was experimented with in the recent 1999 season. Tony Verna is credited with inducting instant replay into the NFL back in 1986 (Lopez 58). Instant replay was implemented to ensure the correct calls are made in crucial games. The Lions-Steelers game on Thanksgiving Day is a good example of what should not happen when instant replay is in use. After this bizarre incident, the NFL then changed its rule of 22 years that team captains call the flip in the air. Now captains call it before the flip. In addition, three officials will oversee the ceremony instead of one. According to Erik Brady: "Now we know the answer to a new spin on an old joke: How many NFL officials does it take to flip a coin" (2A)? Next, more uproar erupted in the 1998 playoffs when an official missed wide receiver Jerry Rice's fumble, which would have ended what turned into the 49ers' game-winning drive against the Packers. Rick Reilly declares: Look, officiating in the NFL during the 1990s isn’t easy. Most of the time it’s like standing on the side of a freeway trying to ID the vegetable stuck between the incisors of a woman in a passing Ferrari. Even if the league goes to younger refs (it should) and full-time refs (it should), the job will still be a bitch. Why, then, do we let every man, woman, and child in America have instant replay except the people who need it most (Reilly 114)!?! Also, the New England Patriots benefited from back-to-back controversial calls at the close of a significant game last year. Trailing 21-17 with 11 seconds remaining, they had a fourth down and nine yards to go for a first down when quarterback Drew Bledsoe threw a pass to receiver Shawn Jefferson on the sideline. Replays appeared to show that Jefferson had failed to come down with either foot in bounds, though by rule he needed to land both of them. He also appeared short of the first down. Either way, the Bills could have run out the game's last six seconds. But, given a first down, the Patriots took one shot at the end zone in a prayer of a pass known as the "Hail Mary." The principles of the "Hail Mary" are quite simple: everyone crowds into one corner of the end zone as the quarterback lofts a pass and hopes for the best. Usually it is deflected incomplete. Sometimes it is intercepted. On rare occasions is it caught for a touchdown. Almost never is the defense called for pass interference. But that is what happened this time. The Patriots receive an automatic first down at the one-yard line and go on to score the game-winning touchdown with no time remaining on the clock. "'I think all the officials are honest people,' said George Young, the NFL's 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 interesting, even memorable (Starr 52). Thus, instant replay was restored, thanks to a 28-3 vote by the owners last March (Rand D1). It is under experimentation to test and see if teams want to re-instate instant replay into the NFL. According to the article “Flag is Thrown on Bad Calls” in USA Today by Erik Brady: “Lately, NFL officials have fallen short of excellence, let alone perfection” (1A). Enthusiasm among owners for replay immersed after the 1991 season because of owners’ concerns that there were too many replays, and they often caused excessive delays (Rand D1). Attempts to bring back replay failed to get the necessary 75 percent majority at each of the last two winter meetings. But among former staunch opponents, Bills owner Ralph Wilson changed his mind surrounding the issue. This came after two officiating mistakes denied his team a victory against the Patriots. Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt was willing to see whether the new system, which puts a 90-second limit on replays, avoids ruining the flow of games. Sports journalist Steve Lopez expounds: Some owners fret about game delays (as if officials don’t already huddle like zebras at a watering hole); technological complexities; and when to allow challenges, by whom and how often. Legitimate concerns, but guess what, guys? Air-traffic control is complicated. So is gene splicing. But reviewing a 5-yard run on instant replay? Is there any good reason, with a game on the line, a season on the line, maybe the Super Bowl on the line, that everyone but the referees should have the benefit of technology that’s roughly 35 years old (Lopez 58)? However, in its earlier incarnation, instant replay was often blamed for delays in the game and sometimes for adding yet another layer of mistakes. But proponents say improved technology means it will work better now. “Tony Verna showed off his latest creation: a cell phone-size TV with playback capability. A referee could carry it on his belt” (Lopez 58). NFL spokesman Greg Aiello says people come to him all the time with ideas like this, and anything that might improve the game is always under consideration (Lopez 58). Did anyone suggest seeing-eye dogs? All in all, instant replay should be permanently implemented into the NFL. Instant replay was installed to help out the referees when they do not see a crucial aspect, which could turn the game around. Although is it no universal remedy, most owners want to try out instant replay to resolve the controversial outcomes of NFL games. It is a system of ensuring the referees make the correct calls. And, if correct calls are the overall priority, then instant replay is the system that works best. Bibliography: N/A Word Count: 1441
Copyright © 2005 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved.