Will throwing out the Red Flag be a thing of the past?

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

There is talk of proposing a change in Owner's Meetings this year in the process of eliomination a coach throwing out the Red Flag and instead of that they just automatically go right to the replay booth where the decision would be made involving turnovers and judgement calls by the on field refs
....it would save time and effort of the on field judges IMO and teams would not have to gamble and lose a timeout if overruled.

I am all for dumping the Red Flag and just going automatically to the booth for every questionable turnover or similar situation,in the long run it would save time in the game and I am tired of having to wait for the judge to go to the camera booth and stick his head in for 5 minutes.....time for a change.

 

[xmarkd400x]

But then who would decide what gets replayed? Certain things need to be let go in order for the game to progress (was that spot off by a half yard? Lets review it).

I kind of like the coach-initiated thing because only certain plays get reviewed. If the NFL could come up with a formula for deciding which plays get reviews (ie, high impact to the game, very close call) I could see it being a success. I wouldn't want it to turn into I CAN HAZ REVEW, however.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

But then who would decide what gets replayed? Certain things need to be let go in order for the game to progress (was that spot off by a half yard? Lets review it).

I kind of like the coach-initiated thing because only certain plays get reviewed. If the NFL could come up with a formula for deciding which plays get reviews (ie, high impact to the game, very close call) I could see it being a success. I wouldn't want it to turn into I CAN HAZ REVEW, however.

It is reported that the Bills are the catalyst of the proposed change.....I somehow like the idea.

 

[brdmaverick]

But then who would decide what gets replayed? Certain things need to be let go in order for the game to progress (was that spot off by a half yard? Lets review it).

I kind of like the coach-initiated thing because only certain plays get reviewed. If the NFL could come up with a formula for deciding which plays get reviews (ie, high impact to the game, very close call) I could see it being a success. I wouldn't want it to turn into I CAN HAZ REVEW, however.

100% agree, after all, the NFL initiated the "Review ALL scoring plays" idea last year. While some thought it was great, it still left a big loophole of "Plays that SHOULD HAVE BEEN scoring plays but were incorrectly ruled".

 

[Shockt327]

Oh, I certainly hope so...

I think it's absolutley ridiculous that the burden of incorrect officiating somehow gets taken off the refs, and is placed on the opposing coach's shoulders, by turning it into a game of strategy. Incorrect officiating is something that the refs need to correct on their own. It shouldn't be turned into a game within a game.

There should be a booth official who can radio the proper call down the officiating crew on the field. Like the OP said; having a on-field ref run to a sideline kiosk is a major waste of time. On tv, we can usually get 4-5 replays from different angles before the refs even goes under the hood.

 

[Why?PJ]

they need to just adopt the college system, they could even do it by wiring all the stadiums into NFL HQ and have a group of NFL officials lead by the head of officiating reviewing every single play.

 

[Leemo]

Surely this would increase stoppages during the game rather than decrease them...?

 

[Wolfpack]

There is talk of proposing a change in Owner's Meetings this year in the process of eliomination a coach throwing out the Red Flag and instead of that they just automatically go right to the replay booth where the decision would be made involving turnovers and judgement calls by the on field refs
....it would save time and effort of the on field judges IMO and teams would not have to gamble and lose a timeout if overruled.

I am all for dumping the Red Flag and just going automatically to the booth for every questionable turnover or similar situation,in the long run it would save time in the game and I am tired of having to wait for the judge to go to the camera booth and stick his head in for 5 minutes.....time for a change.

I'm not so sure it will save all that much time. Having the replay guys make their decision upstairs then communicate it down to the ref is what they do in college football and believe me, nothing about college football replays is anything quicker than what the NFL does.

In fact, when the ruling on the field is overturned, it can't sometimes be a nightmare to get the proper call radioed down to the referee.

 

[Why?PJ]

Surely this would increase stoppages during the game rather than decrease them...?

why is that a bad thing? At some point the NFL needs to admit their refs aren't perfect, and having a team of people headed up by the head of officiating review all the questionable calls and make the decisions takes any question of the refs screwing up out of the equation. I'd take games taking ten minutes longer over having the validity of the final score questioned.

Even if there was 1 or 2 people reviewing every play in the stadium, and if they see anything they don't like they can bump it up to the head office to make sure the calls get called right, I'm fine with that.

What I am sick of is teams winning the Super Bowl because of a playoffs worth of horrid calls going there way aka the colts sb win.

 

[blackglass3]

I vaguely remember the replay system from the late 80's, and that was just too long. I vividly remember them trying to determine if the call of Pass Interference was right or not. As a little kid I thought it just sucked all the life out of the game.

Now, I am more torn. Should replay officials be used to look at the film? Yeah, most likely. That stupid replay booth has so many things that can go wrong with it. But I like the red flag throwing and think it should stay that way. Putting all replay calls into the officials hands is just a little too autonomous for me personally.

 

[voluntarysaftey]

But then who would decide what gets replayed? Certain things need to be let go in order for the game to progress (was that spot off by a half yard? Lets review it).

I kind of like the coach-initiated thing because only certain plays get reviewed. If the NFL could come up with a formula for deciding which plays get reviews (ie, high impact to the game, very close call) I could see it being a success. I wouldn't want it to turn into I CAN HAZ REVEW, however.

They already decide in the final 2 minutes -- I assume they can use the same judgement for the entire game.

 

[pdangle]

I swear I'm so sick of this. Lets review everything. Touchdowns, almost touchdowns, first downs, 4th downs, fumbles, review it ALL. It will never be 100% perfect. Live with the mistakes. Play the game already.

If the NFL REALLY cared about the product they'd speed up the game and just live with the human element. You can't foresee everything. But... They don't. Just another way to squeeze more commercials in. And the ADD , Lego stacking, roto crowd is buying it.

 

[Wolfpack]

I vaguely remember the replay system from the late 80's, and that was just too long. I vividly remember them trying to determine if the call of Pass Interference was right or not. As a little kid I thought it just sucked all the life out of the game.

Pass interference was never reviewable, but I certainly agree with the point you are making. I remember opposing the current system because I don't like the idea of someone being out of challenges and getting hosed late in the game, but I think it has worked out in a reasonably decent fashion. There simply is never going to be a perfect system which is quick, tidy and error free. We're always going to have the human element in play, for better or for worse.

 

[BradyBranch39]

getting your team to the line in a hurry will be really important because the replay guy up in the booth won't be as afraid of taking too much time to decide. He'll just let it go.

 

[RayClay]

Surely this would increase stoppages during the game rather than decrease them...?

Actually. it would become one long Supreme court meeting interrupted by an occasional football play. This is the worst idea ever.

I had thought this was merely eliminating the silly flag for another way to indicate a protest. Talk about the medicine being worse than the disease. Coach initiated reviews works perfectly, with a justifiable penalty for bad, or too many, decisions by coaches.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Actually. it would become one long Supreme court meeting interrupted by an occasional football play. This is the worst idea ever.

I had thought this was merely eliminating the silly flag for another way to indicate a protest. Talk about the medicine being worse than the disease. Coach initiated reviews works perfectly, with a justifiable penalty for bad, or too many, decisions by coaches.

Eliminating the red flag would indeed change the outcome of games simply because there probably has been numerous games decided because the Head Coach on the losing team threw the flag,only to be wrong and lost a timeout that eventually played a role in losing the game because his team simply ran out of time on the clock when deep in the opponents territory because his WR stayed in bounds while getting tackled for example.

This proposal is going to be an interesting one at least.

 

[olschool]

I swear I'm so sick of this. Lets review everything. Touchdowns, almost touchdowns, first downs, 4th downs, fumbles, review it ALL. It will never be 100% perfect. Live with the mistakes. Play the game already.

If the NFL REALLY cared about the product they'd speed up the game and just live with the human element. You can't foresee everything. But... They don't. Just another way to squeeze more commercials in. And the ADD , Lego stacking, roto crowd is buying it.

They should just have a Roman emperor on a balcony in front of the big screen, give a thumbs up or thumbs down after watching the slo-mo replay.

 

[363839]

If they stop play for every play deemed close(By who?), I don't think I could watch football anymore.

 

[Why?PJ]

Actually. it would become one long Supreme court meeting interrupted by an occasional football play. This is the worst idea ever.

I had thought this was merely eliminating the silly flag for another way to indicate a protest. Talk about the medicine being worse than the disease. Coach initiated reviews works perfectly, with a justifiable penalty for bad, or too many, decisions by coaches.

If they stop play for every play deemed close(By who?), I don't think I could watch football anymore.

yea because that is exactly what happens in college football...

Coach initiated reviews are horrific, because it takes a timeout away. Why the hell should a team risk a timeout when the refs blow a call? Totally idiotic.

College FB does it best. You never know the system is their unless the refs screw up. And then the people upstairs can decide quickly and no one has to watch a ref run the entire length of the field before he can see a replay of anything, and then run the entire length of the field back. It is so stupid I can't believe anyone thinks it is a good idea.

A ref in a booth with a good tv and a DVR can decide a play in a matter of seconds. So much better than the stupidity the NFL has now.

 

[Joker]

they can change from a red flag to a pink flag...and we can all have tea and biscuits as we wait for the strict Flag Marm to render her decision...before resuming "Roger's New and Improved Tissue Hanky" football....time out!!!!!...referee, he just made a bad face at me...I'm gonna cwy!!!!! Fifty Five Yards!!!

almost done with this sanitization,distilization and emasculation of our once great sport...