The NFL can tweak instant replay all it wants. It can throw red flags or beep replay buzzers. It can put the onus for review on officials or throw it back in the coaches' laps.
But the league can never remove all the warts from a system that has too many variables. It can never make that system perfect. That much is obvious.
The question is, can it prevent major debacles like the one that unfolded in Cleveland last Sunday, when a series of mistakes unleashed a torrent of fan abuse on players and officials alike?
If not, the league ought to scrap the system right now, and not wait for the 2003 season, through which replay is on the books. Interestingly enough, most coaches remain in favor of replay and want to work to refine it.
"I still believe in replay, I really do," said Seattle coach Mike Holmgren. "I think there have been a couple cases we've been involved with this year that could have been handled a little better, but I'm still a proponent of it."
When the league executives and coaches meet in the off-season, they will look hard at the final 68 seconds of Cleveland's 15-10 loss to Jacksonville in Week 14. It was replay at its worst. To recap:
With 1:08 to play, Browns quarterback Tim Couch tossed a short fourth-down pass to Quincy Morgan for an apparent first down. Scrambling to get off another play, Couch pretended to spike the ball to catch the Jaguars unaware. Failing that, he then spiked the ball to stop the clock.
After first-year referee Terry McAulay signaled an incomplete pass on the spike, he checked the pager on his belt and was informed that replay official Bill Reynolds wanted to review the previous play (the completion). As McAulay would indicate later, he felt the pager buzz before the spike, even though, as TV replays showed, he did not respond until after the clock stopped. That was a crucial point.
Ultimately, the catch was wiped out, the fans pelted the field with beer and water bottles and McAulay called off the game with 48 seconds remaining. Thirty minutes later, at commissioner Paul Tagliabue's insistence, teams of 11 players each returned to the field for two kneel-downs by Jaguars quarterback Mark Brunell.
Where did McAulay go wrong? Let's count the mistakes.
He did not stop the spike play, or signal for a timeout after the spike. This left in question when he actually received the review signal. It is legal for officials to review a play - even if another has been run - if the request to review was made before the next snap.
After reversing the catch, he failed to reset the clock to 1:03 and allowed the game to resume with 48 seconds left.
He signaled an incompletion on the spike play but did not throw a flag for intentional grounding on Couch's double-pump, which is illegal under the rules.
He had no authority to call the game off, only to suspend it.
Nevertheless, several coaches felt the officials did the right thing.
"In that particular case, unfortunately the mechanics were not maybe exactly the way you would like them," said Dallas coach Dave Campo. "I think they handled it the right way. The replay official said he buzzed them before the play was snapped. Well, in a hurry-up situation like that, you can't get the play stopped."
Despite the fiasco, Kansas City coach Dick Vermeil reached for the bottom line on instant replay with this observation: "To me, I've always had the attitude that if it corrects one wrong, either for me or against me, it adds credibility to the game."
Credibility was definitely lacking in Cleveland.
Damage control
When copycat fans in New Orleans threw plastic beer bottles onto the Superdome floor after a series of fourth-quarter penalties against the Saints in Monday night's loss to St. Louis, the NFL had another public relations boondoggle.
The league responded by mandating that beer and alcohol sales must end after the third quarter. A handful of teams, among them the St. Louis Rams, Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants, will ban the use of plastic bottles, as well. They'll serve drinks in plastic cups instead.
The league also is urging teams to caution fans about throwing things onto the field, warning that violators will be prosecuted and tickets revoked.
Thanks, I think
Here's the thanks Dick Jauron gets for guiding the Chicago Bears to 10 wins and a playoff berth in his third season: He faces the possibility of having to prove himself again next year as a lame-duck coach. Jauron's contract runs through 2002, and he may not get an extension.
First-year general manager Jerry Angelo, perhaps preferring a coach of his own choice, admits the lame-duck season is possible.
"We've not talked about any of that type of thing," Angelo said of an extension. "Dick said from the onset, and I've followed his lead, that we're taking it week-to-week. It will unfold when the timing's right and we'll address it. ... I'm not minimizing what Dick and his staff have done. They've done an outstanding job to date."
Commodities and carries
