Another Week, Another NFL Replay Fumble

OK, the NFL might be an unchallenged ratings giant and the league might provide great week-to-week television programming, but its replay rule continually proves flawed -- and that's just about the most visible marriage of TV and the sport.

Even worse, the flaws inevitably, inexcusably impact the integrity of the game.

Credit standout NFL beat reporter Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for shedding light on the latest failing. After the Steelers passed on a replay challenge Sunday night against the Saints, coach Mike Tomlin told the media: "When you're on the road, you don't get [good] looks at replay." At least that was the quote from the Post-Gazette after the game.

After some digging, Bouchette pretty much determined that there was no missing word ("good") in the quote. The Steelers coaching staff in the press box, the folks who would normally let Tomlin know whether or not to challenge a call, really did not get a look at the replay.

That's because the TV in their coaching box was not tuned to the game. And, according to Bouchette's report in Wednesday's Post-Gazette, an NFL spokesman said it was the coaches' job to make sure they requested the channel be changed.

Really? That just sounds like passing the buck.

OK, coaches from any team should have enough self awareness to have the game tuned in on the monitors or TVs in their coaching box -- and to their discredit they did not -- but the incident just provides another example of the sometimes random nature of the NFL replay rule.

If the league wants to utilize replay, it should be its responsibility to make sure the tools are available and working. In this case, that's the TV in the coaches' box.

And the inability or unwillingness to do that, and to require it of host teams as opposed to visitors having to ask for it to happen, just provides another example of the system's failings.

The challenge portion of the rule itself is a disservice to the integrity of the game. Asking coaches to choose when they want a replay is unfair -- a replay referee should examine every play no matter what. After all, when it supposedly means more, in the final two minutes of a half, a replay official does that anyway.

Well what does that person do for the other 28 minutes of each half? They're not working in any capacity that clearly benefits the game, but they're probably getting paid. And does that mean those long stretches, a majority of the game, mean less than the final two minutes of each half?

Plus, there are always the moments when one team hurries to the line, trying to get a play off before a replay can happen on a potentially controversial play. If a team can get things moving before a coach on the sideline gets word from his assistants in the booth have time to challenge the play, well, so much for the integrity of the game in that instance, too.

An always working replay official could prevent that from happening. And a replay rule that works consistently would be the best possible option. Someday the NF might get it right.