Play it Again, NFL

What all these bad calls had in common is not that they were part of some pre-ordained NFL directive. The league is on such firm ground that it can, more easily than other leagues, withstand the disappointment of having a final four with only one team in the top half of NFL TV markets, Seattle at 13th in the nation. (The others are Denver at 18th, Pittsburgh at 22nd and Charlotte a lowly 27th.) It is rather that all the bad calls went in favor of the home team, an unintentional but perhaps inevitable consequence of the frenzy that is the modern sports fan.

I can't prove that contention. If the NFL keeps stats on which way the bad call bounces, they are not available on its wonderfully comprehensive Web site. All I do know is this has been the season of bad officiating. Throw in the baseball playoffs, in which the most conspicuous of a number of bad calls spurred the home team Chicago White Sox on to victory. And the Rose Bowl for the national championship, in which somehow the whole world--with the notable exception of the replay officials--saw that Texas quarterback Vince Young's knee was on the ground well before he scored one of his touchdowns.

The irony is, of course, that we knew his knee was down the very same way we knew Polamalu intercepted the ball: it was obvious once we saw the replay. The TV technology is now so superb that it is truly jarring when the officials don't see it the way we do or, in fact, don't see it at all. As a result, the NFL has arrived at a critical point. Having succumbed to the lure of technology and the promise of improved accuracy, the NFL has to consider how much of a place there remains for judgment calls or at least bad judgment calls.

This is where I am supposed to go into a disclaimer, noting how hard the officials' job is. I stipulate to that. And I also stipulate to the fact that we are all human and human error will inevitably be part of any contest played and officiated by humans. Still, does it remain acceptable that everybody watching can know the official erred except that official? In an age of technological wonders, is that desirable? Or more accurately, is that acceptable?

I don't believe there are any solutions that won't prolong games that, we all agree, are already excessively long. (The major bowl games, more than the NFL playoffs, were a torture, albeit a compelling one.) Still, I am willing to endure a little more waiting to ensure that the right call is made. Perhaps we need specialists, officials who are schooled in both the technology and the league rules, to make the calls from the booth. At the very least, we might need to take the referee out of his isolation booth on the field, allowing him to communicate his interpretation of the rules to an expert in the booth. At least then, the expert might say, "You've got to be kidding"--and alert the ref to the dimensions of his folly.

And, of course, something needs to be done about pass interference beyond a little lightening up on the current approach, which is nonstop throwing the flag against the defense. I understand that contemplating replay for pass interference opens up the proverbial can of worms. But few calls have such major impact as a 39-yard penalty that takes the ball from beyond field-goal range and puts it on the one-yard line. Which is what happened late in the second quarter of the Broncos-Patriots game and gave Denver a lead it never relinquished.