NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino acknowledges that Denver’s Will Parks might have stepped out of bounds before he scored on his game-winning blocked extra point return against the Saints on Sunday. But he might not have stepped out of bounds. And if the ref can’t stay for sure, he won’t change the call on replay.
“The basic foundation of replay is to fix the obvious mistake,” Blandino said on a video distributed to the media. “We’re not re-officiating the play in replay, we’re not there to fix every potential mistake. It’s to fix the obvious error. If it’s not obvious, we’re not going to overturn the call on the field.”
That has always been the NFL’s standard of evidence for instant replay: Only certain types of plays can be reviewed, and those calls can be overturned only if the evidence is indisputable that the call on the field was wrong. The majority of calls aren’t reviewable in the first place, and many that are reviewed will stand as called even if they appear to be incorrect.
However, it may be time for the NFL to consider adding a video official whose job isn’t to fix obvious mistakes after the fact, but to work with the officials, communicating in real time to help them get the call right without needing a review.
