Poll: Do You Want Penalties to be Reviewable?

This is in response to the Saints Rams blown call late in the game.

While I understand why people want that call reviewed, it would be a horrible idea to make all penalties reviewable. The pace of the game would become slowed down horribly. Could you imagine every great play getting reviewed to make sure there were no push offs/PI’s?

I just don’t trust the NFL to make a rule change to this without completely ruining the pace of the game. Calls like that suck, but it’s better than the alternative.

That's exactly how they officiate in rugby, and the pace of the game is waaaay faster than the nigh-unwatchable mess that is NFL officiating.

For example, that play in the Saints game would have been flagged in under 20 seconds, and the ref's communications with the replay official would've been open the entire time. And, as a bonus, if the official determined that the play would've resulted in a score, he can flat-out award it.

Yes, everything should be reviewable, but same limited # of coach's challenges.

not everything should be, but why not let coaches use their challenges (which are already part of the game) for either a called penalty, to recheck it and see if flag should be picked up, or for a non call that was missed and throw the flag after the fact?

game speed wont be changed a bit

Joey007 said:

This is in response to the Saints Rams blown call late in the game.

While I understand why people want that call reviewed, it would be a horrible idea to make all penalties reviewable. The pace of the game would become slowed down horribly. Could you imagine every great play getting reviewed to make sure there were no push offs/PI’s?

I just don’t trust the NFL to make a rule change to this without completely ruining the pace of the game. Calls like that suck, but it’s better than the alternative.

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Structure it correctly and it could be very strategic.
1) all turnover / uncalled turnover and TD / uncalled TD automatically reviewed (right now it’s reviewed only if called turnover or TD on the field).
2) inside 2:00 and OT, booth initiated for all non-penalty plays (same as right now).
3) each team gets 1 challenge each game for anything else, including any penalty. If you win your challenge, you get another one. Goes on in perpetuity until you lose, then you never get another challenge that game.

That should limit the abuse of penalty replay and catch/no catch while making sure egregious game changing errors always get reviewed.

Tricky. On the one hand, I definitely think they should be reviewable. Penalties can decide games, as seen yesterday with the Saints. Even our game had at least 5 flags that were utter ********. I've never understood why certain things are reviewable and others aren't. But yeah, it would mess up the entire pace of the game if every single flag could be reviewed. Games might take 4-5 hours then. Maybe if the refs on the field were in direct contact with the booth refs and they could tell them "hey listen, that flag was bs, you might wanna take a look at that".

ALP said:

not everything should be, but why not let coaches use their challenges (which are already part of the game) for either a called penalty, to recheck it and see if flag should be picked up, or for a non call that was missed and throw the flag after the fact?

game speed wont be changed a bit

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The game speed likely would be changed imo. What affects game speed here? Not how many challenges you’re technically given, but how many challenges are used. Think about how many more challenge flags would be thrown. You hit a big play and im not convinced I need my timeouts? Of course I should challenge that there was technically holding somewhere in the play. Etc etc.
I think there would be much more incentive for teams to challenge more

Florio had a great idea to have a 9th official serve as a video judge. Any major screw up can be relayed to the head ref, who can throw a flag or pick it up, etc. For the gray area stuff, the coaches can challenge the ruling or consent to the ruling on the field. That way, coaches don’t have to waste challenges on everything.

RLKAG (probably two)

Belichick is right, everything should be reviewable.

Joey007 said:

This is in response to the Saints Rams blown call late in the game.

While I understand why people want that call reviewed, it would be a horrible idea to make all penalties reviewable. The pace of the game would become slowed down horribly. Could you imagine every great play getting reviewed to make sure there were no push offs/PI’s?

I just don’t trust the NFL to make a rule change to this without completely ruining the pace of the game. Calls like that suck, but it’s better than the alternative.

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Not only reviewing penalties called, but penalties not called. The last 2 minutes would last a month. Let’s review balls and strikes too. That way we’d have baseball 12 months a year.

TommyBrady12 said:

Florio had a great idea to have a 9th official serve as a video judge. Any major screw up can be relayed to the head ref, who can throw a flag or pick it up, etc. For the gray area stuff, the coaches can challenge the ruling or consent to the ruling on the field.

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His point is close to what I have been proposing for years, but know it would never happen in the NFL.

The NFL should basically take Rugby's review system and put it to use.

A second set of refs watch, in stadium, all the feeds of the game real time. They can buzz down to stop play if the on field crew misses a call/play/turnover/score (or gets one wrong).

All referee communication is broadcast over the stadium PA system to keep it on the up and up.

Shockingly, for anyone who has seen it in a Rugby game, it is way smoother than the system the NFL uses as it resolves situations quickly, which I think most people would assume it would slow the game down more.

They should also utilize GPS on the balls along with receptors along the goal line and sidelines and remove the "judgement call" on where the ball is down, did it cross the goal line or where the punt went out of bounds; rather than some ref 10 yards down field running up and guessing where the ball crossed a boundary line.

It wont ever happen, because the entertainment that the NFL is (read the back of your next game ticket) doesn't want it right 100% of the time.

I’m really stunned you guys want everything reviewed.

If that happens, then enjoy a completely slowed up and watered down flow of games that becomes unwatchable.

Only the really big calls should be reviewable IMO. And there should be limited reviews of those calls as well.

reviewable, but only within the current number of challenges.

Joey007 said:

I’m really stunned you guys want everything reviewed.

If that happens, then enjoy a completely slowed up and watered down flow of games that becomes unwatchable.

Only the really big calls should be reviewable IMO. And there should be limited reviews of those calls as well.

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Watch a Rugby match....with time (in terms of the refs learning it) you wouldn't even notice a "delay".

I mean didn't the Chiefs basically get a free time out yesterday because there was a ref huddle about the game clock?

ALP said:

not everything should be, but why not let coaches use their challenges (which are already part of the game) for either a called penalty, to recheck it and see if flag should be picked up, or for a non call that was missed and throw the flag after the fact?

game speed wont be changed a bit

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Only for a play like a deep down field PI play.

Should not be used on holding plays, since there’s essentially holding on every play.

This wouldn't be a conversation if the ref in question did his job. I've seen some extremely late flags and I would have been okay if that same ref that didn't throw it changed his mind and threw it after seeing the jumbo tron. The next play hadn't run yet.

PI is such a subjective call and can look so different at real speed and slowed down video. People trying to make it perfect are going to destroy the product. After 20 years, replays are still way too long.

Drewski said:

They should also utilize GPS on the balls along with receptors along the goal line and sidelines and remove the "judgement call" on where the ball is down, did it cross the goal line or where the punt went out of bounds; rather than some ref 10 yards down field running up and guessing where the ball crossed a boundary line.

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GPS isn't close to being that accurate enough.

Also, since the rule is that it's a TD if any part of the ball crosses the front of the goalline, you'd need to have the entire ball sensor-ified. Also, even that wouldn't be enough because you'd need to compare the time that the ball crossed the line to the time the ballcarrier was down.

The NFL has cluttered the rule book with too many rules. It is amazing the officials get the number of things right that they do. Is the contact at 4 yards or 6 yards. Is there a pick. Was that a push off. All in the space of a 5 second play.

QuantumMechanic said:

GPS isn't close to being that accurate enough.

Also, since the rule is that it's a TD if any part of the ball crosses the front of the goalline, you'd need to have the entire ball sensor-ified. Also, even that wouldn't be enough because you'd need to compare the time that the ball crossed the line to the time the ballcarrier was down.

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I should have used GPS in " ". Absolutely not that accurate.

Something akin to the the Hawk-eye in Tennis or the Goal decision system in European football would achieve the same end desire; with obvious adjustments for the field specs.

EDIT TO ADD - They could also build on the RFID work they did a couple of seasons back.