When it comes to the NFL’s replay-review process, two important things should be remembered.
First, the ruling on the field should be overturned only if 50 drunks in a bar would agree that a mistake was made. Second, if it takes six minutes and five seconds to figure it out, 50 drunks in a bar would not agree that a mistake was made.
Last night, a full six minutes and five seconds were needed to overturn a ruling that (God forbid) Tom Brady had thrown an interception.
Peter King had plenty to say about the situation on Friday’s PFT Live, and he’ll take a closer look at the moment in his next Football Morning in America.
For now, we’ll say this. No replay review should shut a game down for that long, especially not a prime-time game.
According to the rulebook, that shouldn’t happen. Says Rule 15, Section 2, Article 2: “A decision must be made within 60 seconds from when video is shared with the Referee on the field.”
The problem is that there’s no penalty for failure to comply. There’s no remedy at any, other than whatever tough questions Walt Anderson and/or Perry Fewell may have to answer later from the league office.
For most of the 2021 season, the replay process has worked -- despite the changes made to the persons in charge of the process. Last night’s delayed effort to apparently search and search and search for a way to overturn what would have been (should have been) a Brady interception is not how it should ever happen.
