The power of the Fumanchu! Upon further review these are not Fumanchu mustaches, but they are the horseshoe. With that replay in the books it’s time for the NFL to take instant replay under the hood for review.
In the Ravens 24-10 win over the Browns, Ed Hochuli overturned a clear reception and fumble recovered by the Ravens with the explanation that the receiver didn’t hold the ball long enough. On the field it was called a catch and fumble, to overturn the call there needs to be indisputable visual evidence.
This begs the question, what is indisputable visual evidence? By definition it is …
Indisputable: established beyond doubt or question; definitely known; impossible to doubt or dispute.
The NFL explains that when a challenge flag is thrown, the referee goes to the sidelines and watches replays of the challenged play on a monitor. The referee can watch all the angles that the television cameras captured. He can watch the play in slow motion, backward, forward and in still frame. NFL challenge rules state that the referee has one minute to review the challenged play, but this sometimes takes longer. The referee must see "indisputable visual evidence" that the call on the field was incorrect. In cases where the replay is too close to tell, the call on the field stands.
The NFL also operates replay under this philosophy
Philosophy
ARTICLE 2. The instant replay process operates under the fundamental assumption that the ruling on the field is correct. The replay official may reverse a ruling if and only if the video evidence convinces him beyond all doubt that the ruling was incorrect. Without such indisputable video evidence, the replay official must allow the ruling to stand.
Very interesting that it should be so obvious that not one viewer should question why a call had been reversed. Yet, so many challenges leave us questioning what the officials are doing under the hood. The definition uses the word impossible. Even after replay we are left with as many baffling questions as to what they saw under the hood as compared to what we saw on the TV replay.
Dear Commissioner Goodell, it’s time to get this right!
