The absolute best commercial on TV right now (that isn’t the Dr. Rick commercials–Stop leaving voicemails! You’re turning into your parents!) is the commercial for something or other where they get to throw a challenge flag and review a life event that recently just happened.
There’s one with a man catching a spider, and the son claims he squealed when he first saw the spider. The dad protests saying that he’d never squeal like that. The son, with eyebrows raised, drops a red challenge flag where they go to the videotape. Yep. Dad. That was you. Squealing. Because of a spider.
Who wouldn’t want this type of technology to solve nearly any domestic argument? Honey? Did you have the keys last? No, sweetie. You had them last. Let’s roll the tape.
How’d that ding get on the side of the car, son? No clue? Drop that little red flag. Did you forget to pick up milk at the store or did you forget to tell me? Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if our Alexa and Google devices already have this in the works.
The commercial is an homage to the red flag used in the NFL to challenge plays whereby they ask the officials to go to the videotape to confirm a pass, or overrule a touchdown. Challenging a play was very controversial when it was introduced into the NFL way back in 1986. It went away for nearly a decade, to return in 1999 and has been here to stay ever since – with that little red flag.
Instant replay has, for the most part, enhanced pro football. It has gotten more right than it’s gotten wrong, and that’s the primary goal.
But as our domestic commercial implies, there need to be more uses for it in the NFL. We saw one Monday night as the Chiefs were recipients of one of the worst flags in its history. A phantom roughing the passer call on Derek Carr, the quarterback for the Raiders.
Chris Jones drew the flag, and the officials drew the ire of the entire football community. Why couldn’t a buzzer go off in lead official Carl Jeffer’s ear with a simple question, “Hey Carl, you wanna look at that again?” Maybe even louder than a whisper – the 70,000 screaming fans at Arrowhead might’ve been a clue that something was so egregious it might be worth another look. No red flag needed – only a red flood of boos.
I’ve been a baseball official for over 35 years. The absolute worst feeling is when you know you blow a call badly. It’s awful. The hall of fame umpire Nestor Chylak was quoted saying “an umpire must be perfect on the first day of the season and then get better every day.” With the increased scrutiny on professional sports, the lights have never been brighter. Add in the new legalization of sports gambling, and it’s a multi-billion dollars riding on a blown call.
Why not take another look? Why not get under the hood and just, to double-check, make sure you got it right? I can’t find a good reason not to.
Technology continues to advance. We have cameras that will give you the n’th detail of every blade of grass on a field – there’s no reason that the BIG calls can’t get another look.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to try to advance the technology here at home because I’m absolutely confident that my wife never told me to pick up potatoes at the grocery store and she insists she’s told me dozens of times. Let me go find my red flag.
(Get flagged by Chris Kamler on Twitter, where you’ll find him as @TheFakeNed)