The NFL’s centralized replay review to ensure a consistent standard will be applied when a second look is being taken at on-field decisions. And the consistent standard is, or should be, that the available evidence makes it “clear and obvious” that the officials were wrong in real time.
Sometimes, that standard applies. Sometimes, there isn’t.
When it comes to the play that gave the Colts a chance to beat the Chiefs in overtime, it didn’t.
It was not clear and obvious that the officials made a mistake when they ruled that Colts receiver Laquon Treadwell had caught the ball, landed on one knee/foot without being touched and jumped. The main question was whether Treadwell was sitting with contact. Which required a frame-by-frame review of whether he was touched by Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed after Treadwell completed the multi-step process of making the catch.
It was not clear and obvious that Sneed had touched Treadwell after Treadwell had completed the act of catching the ball. The fact that almost three minutes passed between the announcement of the decision on the field by the referee Craig Wrolstad and the delivery of the final decision, shows that it was not clear and obvious.
The standard has often been summed up like this – the on-field decision should be overturned on replay only if 50 drunks in a bar would have agreed that a mistake had been made.
Here’s what’s clear and obvious: Whoever made the decision in New York re-judged the play, trying to conclude that Sneed was still contacting Treadwell after Treadwell had secured possession.
The league was fortunate that the Colts chose not to attack the end zone after taking an unexcused timeout. Ultimately, the league was fortunate that the Chiefs won the game. If they had lost, it would have been a much bigger deal.
It should still be a big deal because it exposes the presence of a flaw in the reproduction machinery. The standard is “clear and unambiguous.” It was not “clear and obvious” that the decision on the field was incorrect. The game should have been over.
And here’s taking it to the next level. Given the persistent belief in some quarters that the league and officials favor the Chiefs, did the person who made the final replay review decision (whoever he was) err by making a finding that contradicts the narrative, if only to avoid a Monday news cycle that would include more than a few people theorizing that, yet again, the NFL had found a way to help the Chiefs?
Regardless of how it happened and why it happened and who was specifically responsible for it happening, the league in this case did not adhere to the standard that is supposed to apply to replay review. The ruling on the field was not a “clear and obvious” error. The game should have ended with a ruling that Treadwell had made the catch and lost the ball.
