Instant Replay is Instant Idiocy

The University of Michigan’s Chris Webber calls timeout when his team has none left in the 1993 NCAA hoops championship game – a classic sports mental error. A slow roller is hit to Bill Buckner of the Red Sox in the 1986 World Series, it scoots between his legs and the Mets go on to win the game and series – a classic sports physical error.

The sports world is filled with great players making plenty of mistakes on the field; watch any playoff game in any sport and rarely will you see a player go an entire game without some sort of lapse. Whether the mistakes are big or small, fans generally forgive the players knowing that playing the perfect game is not what it’s all about. Fans know these are human beings attempting to play their best (sans Manny Ramirez in a non-contract year) and mental and physical errors are expected

So why then do many sports fans demand perfection from the referees and umpires of the various sports? (And it’s not just pro sports; head down to any little league game and watch as knucklehead adult coaches berate the poor sap who has volunteered to umpire a game between seven-year-olds.) If our sports are going to have rules then impartial human beings are going to have to enforce the rules. And for the same exact reasons that athletes make errors during a game – the concentration it takes on every play, the speed of the game, the pressure of the situation, the subtle difference between when a rule is broken or not, etc. -- fans should also expect the referees and umpires to make mistakes.

However, for some reason, fans don’t expect miscues from refs and umps and that’s a shame. Moreover, it leads pro and college leagues to make ridiculous decisions like instituting television instant replays to overturn certain decisions during a game.  What a crock. Do we want to see robots playing sports? Can you imagine rooting for a bunch of non-humans trying to win games? Of course not.  Then why not do away with demanding perfection from the referees to the point that they can be overruled by the ability to slow the game down and actually freeze it to make a call. If a game has to be played in real time, then it should be judged in real time. No exceptions.

Some fans argue that a mistake by a ref/umpire should not decide the outcome of any game – and leagues should use any means possible to let them get the call right. That’s a specious argument at best; we’re talking sports here, not crime investigation. If part of the intrigue of sports is watching humans rise and fall to many challenges over the course of a game or season, why not embrace the human aspect of the rule watchers? Because the more we automate the ref’s job, we lose a human connection to our games. And that’s a slippery slope. Soon refs will be completely replaced by television cameras at every corner with unseen people in control rooms beaming down calls to the court or field. And, really, how far could we be away from coaches being replaced by computer data specialists to choose the next play based on a statistical roll up of likely scenarios? If a referee or umpire is consistently bad over a period of time then the same thing would happen to a player of the same talent level – he’s replaced.

  For all its faults, Major League Baseball still has it right – no instant replay of any kind; the umpires are even allowed to be somewhat colorful figures and express a little personality now and again. And the game is better for it.

So, as we watch the remaining games of March Madness, let’s embrace the referees who do a thankless job and do away with any sort of instant replay in our sports. And while we don’t have to cheer wildly when the ref makes the right call in a pressure situation, let’s at least forgive the zebras soon after we berate the hell out of them when they blow one.

Comments

[Mike]

You make an interesting point about embracing imperfection. Errors made by the athletes -- like Webber and Buckner -- add entertainment value and contribute to sports' lore. But when an ump's blown call costs a team a game or a trip to the post-season, that's just a shame. I think baseball needs to improve its officiating, starting by requiring its umps to be in shape so they can hustle themselves into position to make the right calls. Being in good shape doesn't ensure that a ref won't screw up -- just look at Ed Hochule. But I have to say that I'm a fan of instant replay. The players should decide the outcome of the game, not the refs.