One of the NFL's new rule changes for this year is that the booth will now automatically review all plays that are called as touchdowns on the field without needing the play to be challenged by a coach.
It sounds good in principle.
Make sure that teams aren't getting points put up on the board when they shouldn't be.
But what about the inverse?
The rule is that only plays that are called as touchdowns on the field are being reviewed. For plays that are incorrectly called as not a touchdown, the coach still has to use a challenge.
So the NFL is making sure that points aren't put up on the board when they shouldn't be, but they're not making sure that points do go up when they should. Why the hell not?
This came up in tonight's Monday Night game between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots. Chad Henne threw a pass to Reggie Bush in the fourth quarter and Bush dove and stretched the ball across the goaline, knocking over the pylon. But the official at the goaline said he was out of bounds before crossing the plane. This play was challenged by Dolphins coach Tony Sporano, and was overturned, as it was obvious in the replay that Bush had cleared the goaline. But the point is that this was a "scoring" play, but it was not reviewed because it was not called a "scoring" play on the field.
Reggie Bush's touchdown was ruled out-of-bounds on the field, so had to be challenged by Tony Sporano.
NFL: if you want to make sure that you get scoring plays called right, then review all plays that may have resulted in a score - regardless of the call on the field. But if you're only going to review the plays that are called touchdowns on the field, then don't bother. It's just that simple.
Whoever thought this rule up is a moron and should be fired.
Coaches already have 2 challenges and one extra if both of theirs are successful. That's enough. If teams start losing games because of bad calls that let other teams score when they shouldn't be scoring, then those teams shouldn't be putting themselves in such vulnerable positions. It's that simple.
Heck, I don't even like the automatic reviews that hapen within 2 minutes of a half. I think that rule should be repealed too. It slows down the game too much.
NFL, if you want to change the rules so that all scoring plays are called correct on the field, then just change the challenge rule so that coaches get two failed challenges. If they win the challenge, then they get to keep calling more. Punish them by taking away a timeout when they fail, but don't punish coaches for being right.
Continued at Stupid NFL Rule Changes (part 2-a).