Why Bill Belichick wants changes in NFL replay By Lorenzo ReyesUSA Today SportsMay 24, 2014
Bill Belichick (Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports) New England coach Bill Belichick wants reform in the NFL’s replay system. What he wants is simple: that every play be subject to a coach’s review. Appearing on “Movin’ the Chains” with Jim Miller and Pat Kirwin on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Belichick explained his thoughts. “There are a lot of plays in the current system that aren’t challengeable. Frankly, the rules are pretty complicated as to what you can and can’t challenge. It’s like every time there’s kind of a controversial play on the field, the heads linesman or line judge comes over to you and he’s trying to coach you along on what you can and cannot challenge. There are complicated rules for the fans, coaches and everybody else. “Whatever it happens to be, it wouldn’t give the coach any more challenges. It would just give him a chance to challenge a play he thought was ruled incorrectly. In the grand scheme of things, I think what we all want is to get the play right and for the best team to win and for the game not to be decided by a missed call. To not have the opportunity to correct that type of play, it just doesn’t seem like it’s the right way to do it. “We had a situation this year where we added another exception to the replay rule because of a play that came up during the season, and it seems like that’s kind of the way it goes — something happens, and then, we have something else to challenge or make another play challengeable that wasn’t in the past, and we’re just going to keep adding to that. I’d just like to clean it up and have a coach have two challenges, and if he gets them right, he gets a third, and that’s it. He can use it on whatever play he wants.” In theory, it’s pretty simple, and it’s hard not to agree with Belichick here. The NFL restricts certain plays from being subject to review. According to rule 15, section nine, article five of the 2013 NFL official playing rules, “non-reviewable plays include, but are not limited to: 1.Status of the play or game clock. 2.Proper down. 3.Penalty administration. 4.Runner ruled down by defensive contact (not involving fumbles). 5.The position of the ball not relating to first down or goal line. 6.Recovery of a loose ball that does not involve a boundary line or the end zone. 7.Field-goal or Try attempts that cross above either upright without touching anything. 8.Inadvertent/Erroneous Whistle. 9.Quarterback “spike” to kill clock.” As with all officials, mistakes happen. Last year, the league had several public gaffes that had to be explained by vice president of officiating Dean Blandino after the conclusion of the games in which they occurred. Despite Belichick’s support, the proposal was eventually rejected. That won’t stop the Patriots coach, however, from trying to get the measure passed. “I think we probably would bring it up again — maybe change our presentation or try to assemble a little bit more support for it,” Belichick said. “In the end, it’s what the membership wants to do. Whatever the rules are, that’s what we’ll play by.” Belichick’s reasoning is sound; if there’s an error, it should be corrected. With the NFL exploring a centralized replay system, perhaps this measure might not be necessary. But as long as there’s a list of plays that are prohibited from being reviewed, problems and potential errors will persist. “I’ve coached with replay, without replay. Whatever it is, we can deal with it,” Belichick said.
