Quote Originally Posted by mraynrand View Post
Wait, what are you saying here? I think that "The call on the field stands unless there is visual evidence to overturn" is about as good as you're gonna get. There are some cases where you know that, had they called it the other way, you couldn't have overturned that either, but the bottom line is that we want the call on the field to stand unless replay shows otherwise, right?
In baseball, if they use replay to determine whether a foul ball call was right, the stated objective (confirm the call) is the same, but the logistics of baseball and its cameras tell you that nearly every time you will be able to determine whether the ball was fair or not under excruciating slo mo from multiple angles. So when you are watching it happen on TV, the call is being made on screen. If there is no clear angle, the call on the field stands. Otherwise, there are no picayune elements that make up a foul ball, whether or not a blade of grass was leaning fair or foul, whether that blade was half green or half white, top or bottom.

There are very few debates about conclusive proof on these calls, because video does a good job of illustrating what the call should have been. Football has much better luck with receivers being in bounds or not, which was one of the original impetuses for replay review.

But in football, two other things happen:

1. The important action (ball in hands, under player, possible hitting ground, possibly moving) are only sometimes viewable depending on angle and technology of the camera and production.

2. Replay challenges can be made about things that the refs have not called at all. If the refs rule it was a sideline catch, the coach can challenge whether the receiver had earlier stepped out of bounds and was ineligible to make first contact with the ball.

#2 is often (though not always) a new call, ref may or may not have seen the step. #1 becomes a decision in and of itself, whether or not you can infer tiny details that support one call or the other. Details of the catch rule are confusing because suddenly a new vocabulary becomes used to describe the action in slow motion.

Mostly to blame in #2 is TV. Where announcers prattle on and on without any idea what replay people are actually looking at. Even the former replay guys get this wrong. They invent new standards as they go that go beyond the rulebook. I actually agree with the going to the ground rules as written. They should dump the control part that stems from the Bert Emanuel catch/no catch in the playoffs. Ball not on ground? Catch. Ball touches ground? No catch. Much easier.