In recent years, the NFL has begun to embrace the concept of replay assistance, a modified and truncated application of the “sky judge” concept. And while it’s admirable for the league to use any and all available angles to quickly and efficiently rectify clear errors, there’s one very important consideration.
The error must be clear.
More importantly, there must be an error.
During the third quarter of Sunday night’s Buccaneers-Rams game, Tampa Bay receiver Tez Johnson made a catch. The ruling on the field was that the pass had been completed.
Rams coach Sean McVay threw the red challenge flag. Referee Clay Martin declared that, before McVay’s challenge had been made, replay assistance had changed the ruling to an incompletion.
[Watch the play](https://x.com/BIG_REDBASEBALL/status/1992796940229312756?s=20). Is it clear and obvious that the ball hit the ground? If anything, it’s clear and obvious that the ball _didn’t_ hit the ground.
Bucs coach Todd Bowles could have thrown a challenge flag of his own. Why bother? If replay assistance overturned the ruling without a challenge, the replay assistant must have seen _something_ that made it both clear and obvious that the ball hit the ground.
It’s an inexcusable error, the kind of thing that makes replay assistance an impediment to the goal of getting calls right. Having a nameless, faceless entity swoop in and change a good call to a bad call will only fuel suspicion that the fix is in.
While the play had no impact on the outcome of the game, the fact that it happened speaks to a flaw that compels the league to explore how and why this happened, and to keep it from happening again.
Replay assistance, given its vague and shadowy nature, must always be accurate. The clear and obvious standard must always be respected.
Sunday night’s blunder was alarming. Hopefully, the league agrees and acts accordingly, before replay assistance makes an inexplicable change that changes the outcome of a game.
Until that happens, all teams should be ready to second guess replay assistance, check the video themselves, and decide whether to use a challenge to overturn a clear and obvious mistake made by replay assistance.