Have you ever watched your favorite sports team lose because of a horrible call by the referees? I know I have. I have been watching football ever since I was born, my first outfit was a Miami Dolphins sweatsuit. I have watched countless times when my team has scored a touchdown, but it was not called a touchdown because either the referee was out of the play, or the referee “saw” the players foot go out of bounds. With the new technology implemented in 2004 by the NFL these awful calls by referees can be decreased. Instant replay allows referees to change calls that were originally given on the field if they are not sure if they made the right call. Since 2004, instant replay has been a major factor in football games, even the most important football game of the season, the Superbowl. In football they use instant replay to review pretty much any call, from a touchdown, a catch, a penalty, or even where to place the ball on the field. Coaches can choose to review any play (if they have a timeout to spare, only twice) during a football game. During a coaches challenge if the call is reversed the team gets to keep their timeout, but if the call remains the same as on the field the timeout will be taken away. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of technology available to you if it may help you win a game? Using this technology a referee can get the fairest call. Instant replay is a way to make sure that referees are calling a fair game. It ensures that sports and referees are less corrupt. If the whole stadium and millions of people watching the game can see the play over and over again, the referees know that they will not be able to get away with being biased and calling the game a certain way.
Football is one of the few sports that has decided to use the new technology to its advantage, by making more accurate calls. Should instant replay be brought into other sports such as soccer, baseball, or tennis? Baseball and tennis both use instant replay, but a minimal amount. In baseball a homerun close to the foul post can be very controversial, so in some cases they use instant replay to determine whether the ball was fair or foul. A few years ago there was a span of three missed homeruns in four days. After that the MLB decided that they would implement the use of instant replay in baseball. But, out of all of the baseball game I have watched I have never seen an umpire use instant replay to see whether the call they made was the right call. For other calls like whether the batter is safe instant replay would be very helpful. Should baseball use instant replay more throughout games or will it just slow down the game?
For other sports such as soccer instant replay is not an option. The game moves along too fast and there aren’t pauses in between each play like football or baseball. However in some situations like a goal called back because it didn’t cross the goal line completely when it actually did, or a goal called back because the person was offsides when they weren’t, instant replay would be very helpful. I know for me that is one of the most frustrating things when it comes to playing soccer. When my team scores the winning goal of a big game but it is called back because they were apparently offsides is very frustrating, or when the other team scores when they are offsides but the referee doesn’t see it. Using instant replay would be helpful in those situations, but what about when a person is called offsides when they have a breakaway but don’t get a chance to score when if they weren’t called offsides they might have. What would they do then? Would they have to completely change the rules of soccer in order to implement the use of instant replay?
