Last night, in the aftermath a Monday night officiating blunder in Seattle that can’t be blamed on replacement officials, I suggested the formation of a committee that would scour the rule book, line by line, in an effort to identify all situations in which replay review should be available.
That approach would be far better than sitting back and waiting for the next situation that cries out for replay review, only to find out that replay review isn’t available.
There’s an even better approach. The NFL should adopt the suggestion from Patriots coach Bill Belichick that everything should be reviewable.
Specifically, coaches should be able to throw the red challenge flag in any situation. If indisputable visual evidence exists to rectify a mistake made on the field, why not give coaches a way to fix it?
One of the concerns raised by the NFL relates to the possibility that coaches will throw the red flag in desperation after a key play, hopeful that some obscure failure to, for example, throw a flag for holding away from the action will be caught via replay. But that possibility can be addressed by limiting challenges to portions of the play directly relevant to the outcome.
Like, for example, an illegal bat that the official who was looking right at the play failed to recognize.