Are We Better Off Without Replay In Sports?

How much would professional sports suffer without review? Would it suffer?

The Fan Morning Show
May 01, 2018 - 11:19 am
Patric Hornqvist scoring

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports


How many times have you looked at a replay while watching a sporting event, the game stops to review the play and look at said replay, then the decision made is the exact opposite of what you thought it would be based on that replay? Or there is a big moment in the game, a walk-off homerun, a game-winning goal or dare we say a potential game-winning touchdown (Jesse James) and you have to temper your excitement and wait with bated breath to see if it holds up after review?

For The Fan Morning Show, it happens all too often. The latest with Patric Hornqvist's no-goal in Game 2. 

Colin Dunlap wondered what the sports landscape would be like if replay was completely taken out of the game. Would things be better off the way they used to be? 

Colin argued that replay is not nearly consistent enough to be useful, as you never know which way things are going to go even after looking at multiple views. Reviews slow down games and take away too long. He says if replay is going to be used, it has to be all the way. Make everything automated, from goals, to touchdowns, to balls and strikes. Eliminate the human element altogether. But would this really be what the consumer would want?

Guest co-host Dorin Dickerson said that if replay was eliminated from professional sports, it would have a negative effect on the product on the field. If, for example, Antonio Brown made a sideline, shoestring catch as he does from time to time and the officials called it no-catch because they thought his feet were out of bounds but replay showed they were in bounds, then fans would be livid. There's a possibility it would ruin the result of a big-time game.

Jim Colony thought back to all those game in the history of professional sports where the outcome would have been different if replay was involved, including that 19-inning game in Atlanta that the Pirates lost when Julio Lugo was wrongly called safe at the plate.

One caller today suggested that it isn't replay that's the issues in most cases, it's the rules that are the problem. The catch rule in the NFL and the goalie interference rule in the NHL in particular are two instances where even after replay things aren't clear because the rules aren't clear. 

So, would you opposed to professional sports moving away from an inconsistent, upredictable replay system or would you rather it stick around and get as much right as it can? Is there another solution?