When Did Nfl Change Review Process to Ny

History of Instant Replay

Upon further review…

The NFL'southward instant replay debate has been a hot-button topic since games were first regularly televised in the late 1940s. Traditionalists, hesitant to interfere with the purity of the game past removing human being error, clashed with those eager to embrace technology and all that it offered the game.

The NFL has come to embrace instant replay, only the process that led to the state-of-the-art system the league uses today was not always seamless. The history of instant replay in professional person football is filled with stops and starts; missteps and controversy; and modifications and improvements that continue to this day.

Instant replay'southward history begins in earnest four decades ago — with a homo and a stopwatch.

STOPWATCHES AND VIDEO CAMERAS

The NFL first experimented with instant replay in 1976 when Art McNally, then the director of officiating, wanted to find out how long a video review would delay a game. Equipped with a stopwatch and video camera, he observed a "Mon Night Football" contest between the Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills from a press box within the stadium.

"If at that place was whatsoever question, nosotros took a look at it," McNally said after the experiment. "We asked the photographic camera technicians to give united states of america different angles."

He saw a missed telephone call on a play involving O.J. Simpson that could accept been corrected with replay review. McNally knew and so: Replay could help football game.

The NFL tested instant replay during the 1978 Hall of Fame game and six other preseason games that year. Information technology determined the system was not withal gear up for regular-season games. (AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy)

Ii years subsequently, the league first tested instant replay on a wider scale during seven nationally televised preseason games, starting with the 1978 Hall of Fame game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins.

The system'south performance was lackluster. The technology was too plush to install at every stadium, the system needed more cameras than broadcasters used for games at the time, and calls remained inconclusive after lengthy reviews. It was clear instant replay was years away from being implemented full time.

"We still think nosotros need a minimum of 12 cameras to get all the angles on every play," then-banana supervisor of officials Nick Skorich said after that beginning game. "Electronically, I don't know if we are advanced enough yet."

Unwilling to implement a costly and ineffective system, the league shelved instant replay until the mid-1980s.

INITIAL INSTANT REPLAY: 1985–1992

Less than a decade after McNally's experiment, momentum for an instant replay system in one case again began to build.

The NFL tested a review system during 8 preseason games in 1985 — producing promising results.

Cleveland Browns owner Fine art Modell delivers a message during a 1982 news conference. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)

"The matter we learned in the preseason is that we tin get the logistical things done," NFL Director of Assistants Joe Rhein said. "That is, it's possible to review instant replays [in the press box] and get the word to the referee on the field without a significant loss of time."

The organisation performed so well that owners held an unprecedented vote to decide if the league would use instant replay in the upcoming playoffs — even though the arrangement had never been used in the regular season. The motility failed narrowly, only the close decision made information technology clear the league'south leaders were once once more warming up to the technology.

"[Owners] didn't want a playoff game decided by a bad call, and then they tried to push it through right at that place," Art Modell, Cleveland Browns owner, said after the vote. "Merely that was a little too quick for some people."

"Some clubs may accept voted against information technology at the time because it was adding something for the postseason that was not available during the regular season," NFL spokesman Joe Browne said at the time.

In the proposed 1985 arrangement, a replay official would take monitored the game feed from an in-stadium berth and initiated all reviews, reversing a telephone call only with "indisputable visual evidence."

Prior to the 1986 flavour, the owners voted 23-4-1 — 21 votes were needed to pass — to adopt express employ of instant replay in the upcoming year. The initial procedure lacked the coach's challenges and technology familiar to today'southward fans. Most reviews were initiated upstairs by the replay official, except when game officials requested a review of their ruling after conferring on the field.

Dallas Cowboys president and general managing director Tex Schramm stalks the sidelines before Super Bowl Xiii, a 35-31 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Jan. 21, 1979. (AP Photo/NFL Photos)

Reviewable plays during instant replay's get-go installation included:

• Plays of possession or touching (fumbles, interceptions, receptions, muffs, or ineligible player touching a forward pass);
• Most plays governed past the sidelines, goal lines, end lines and line of scrimmage (whether a actor is out of premises, frontwards or backward passes or breaking the plane of the goal line);
• And easily detectable infractions on replay (as well many men on the field).

The decision was only reached afterwards a spirited debate and concessions to appease skeptics. The compromise: The organisation would exist guaranteed for simply one yr and would have to be voted on again during the post-obit offseason.

"Some feel nosotros are taking the human element out of the game and moving it to a berth in the press box," said Tex Schramm, who then served as Dallas Cowboys general manager and NFL Contest Committee chairman.

Replay officials saturday in a berth in the stadium with ii 9-inch television monitors showing the circulate feed and two videocassette recorders. The ii VCRs were capable of recording and immediately replaying individual plays. Reviews would be a maximum of two minutes, timed from the moment when the umpire signaled timeout.

First use of instant replay in 1986 Week 1 between the Browns and Bears.

Instant replay's outset regular season saw an average of 1.six reviews per game. Of those plays in question — 374 in all — only ten percent ended with a reversal of the ruling on the field.

The owners reapproved instant replay for the next season. Barely. The measure got exactly the 21 votes needed to pass (21-vii) and was accustomed with a few minor tweaks. Simply just like the 1986 decision, the system would have to exist approved again the following offseason.

Some adjustments were made in an attempt to amend the organisation. To ensure replay officials were experts on the engineering, the NFL would at present hold a training clinic each offseason. The equipment improved as well, admitting slightly, every bit review monitors were upgraded — from nine inches to 12 inches.

"I'one thousand confident the organisation volition go better and improve," Hall of Fame Miami Dolphins double-decker Don Shula said later the '87 vote. "Every bit coaches, we realized we can't see a game from the sidelines every bit well as our coaches can from upstairs in the press box. If you lot transmit that aforementioned thinking to officials, it helps them besides."

BUMPS IN THE Road

The first system did non lack controversies — or critics.

A miscommunicated instant replay call in October 1986 awarded Oakland Raiders receiver Dokie Williams a touchdown on a play that should have been ruled an incomplete pass. (AP Photo/NFL Photos)

During a Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders game in October 1986, Raiders quarterback Marc Wilson threw a pass to Dokie Williams in the corner of the end zone late in the first half. The on-field officials ruled the play a touchdown. Merely up in the instant replay booth Jack Reader, assistant supervisor of officials, determined it was incomplete.

"Pass incomplete," Reader told umpire John Keck with the walkie-talkies used for instant replay system communication.

"Pass is complete," Keck heard. Inadvertently, the touchdown stood. The Raiders won by a touchdown — 24-17.

"My buddy, the instant replay guy," Williams jokingly said afterward the game.

But the miscommunication was no laughing affair to the NFL. The league replaced its walkie-talkies with pagers and radio headsets and information technology changed the terminology, using clearer terms like "confirmed" and "reversed."

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, long a proponent of instant replay, was eager to better the arrangement.

"I'yard hopeful nosotros can make some modifications and go along the concept and make it work rather than step dorsum out of the electronic historic period," he said in 1990.

The commissioner'southward hopes were dashed. After a half dozen-season run, instant replay met its demise in 1991 when 17 owners voted confronting renewing the system. The conventionalities: The arrangement delayed games too much and failed to get plenty of the calls right.

Twelvemonth	Games	Plays Reviewed	Reversals
1986	224	374 (ane.6 per game)	38 (10%)
1987	210	490 (2.three per game)	57 (11.6%)
1988	224	537 (2.three per game)	53 (9.viii%)
1989	224	492 (2.1 per game)	65 (13%)
1990	224	504 (2.ii per game)	73 (14.iv%)
1991	224	570 (ii.v per game)	90 (15.7%)
1986–1991	i,330	ii,967 (2.2 per game)	376 (12.6%)

"Basically, it was a great theory that didn't work in practice," said Norman Braman, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Other owners, like New Orleans Saints President and NFL Competition Committee Chairman Jim Finks, believed the system should have been improved rather than tossed abroad.

"I personally feel it is a major step backwards," Finkssaid. "In that location volition exist much more pressure on the guy on the field."

Ultimately, the system's ineffectiveness led to the end of its use. The league determined that 9 of the 90 reviewed calls in 1991 were overturned incorrectly. And only thirteen percent of the full plays reviewed from 1986 to 1991 were reversed, fueling critic's arguments that this was not the correct organisation.

REPLAY REVISITED: A CLOSER LOOK AT AN IMPROVED SYSTEM

The argue over instant replay, which never completely ended, picked upward again in the mid-'90s.

Many of the league's head coaches at the fourth dimension did non have firsthand feel with the previous version, and then they were curious well-nigh how an improved system would work.

"My sense is that everybody feels that if nosotros're going to have replay, we should look for a concept that works," Tagliabue said in 1996. "But nosotros want to exercise it right."

Referee Bob McElwee reviews a play with an on-field monitor during the 1996 preseason testing of the new system. (AP Photograph/Pecker Kostroun)

A new system was approved for testing in x preseason games in 1996. Coaches could challenge rulings on the field and replay at present covered three categories of plays: out of bounds, number of players on the field and scoring plays.

Each passenger vehicle could claiming three plays per half — at the cost of a timeout per review. The league went away from the old version of replay officials in skyboxes and gave referees the authority to review plays on the field inside a berth equipped with monitors. And referees now had only 90 seconds to make their ruling.

Despite the changes, owners voted against implementation for the 1997 regular season. The principal hang-upwardly centered on each review costing teams a timeout, even when a claiming was successful.

Heading into the 1999 season, the Competition Committee again adapted its proposal to address owners' and coaches' concerns. Voters responded, overwhelmingly approving the new system 28-three. Instant replay review was back in the NFL.

The new system addressed some of the main criticisms of past versions.

• To minimize delays, the league cut the number of challenges from three to 2 per half.
• Coaches, unwilling to trade a timeout for any review, would now exist charged a timeout only for unsuccessful challenges.
• And and then coaches could focus at the cease of each one-half on which plays to call and non which calls to claiming — a replay assistant initiated all reviews inside the final two minutes of each half.

"I gauge [the voters] felt this was a compromise," Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Tony Dungy said, "that it won't slow the game down too much while it yet lets coaches coach during the last ii minutes of both halves."

Always IMPROVING

Showtime in 2017, referees will view replays on wired, hand-held Microsoft Surface tablets.

Since its return, the league has taken steps to improve the process and limit errors as much as possible — and technology continues to catch up with the ambitious task of replay review.

Long gone were the VCRs and small monitors. Referees now viewed multiple angles at one fourth dimension using three bear upon-screen monitors under the hood. Mike Holmgren, co-chairman of the Competition Committee, said: "We'll become the best technology bachelor."

Tweaks to replay review continued throughout the decade. In 2004, a advantage was added for coaches who were successful on their kickoff two reviews: a third claiming. That same year, owners extended the replay system for the adjacent 5 seasons — with the hopes of permanently approving the tool in the virtually future.

"Hopefully, the next time we put it up for a vote we tin can make it permanent," Baltimore Ravens general director and Contest Commission member Ozzie Newsome said after the v-year extension.

Newsome'southward wish came true simply a few years later. A 2007 decision put an finish to what had become a yearly debate. With a thirty-ii owner'due south vote, instant replay became a permanent fixture in the league.

"It'southward a long fourth dimension coming. Instant replay is an accustomed part of the game," said Atlanta Falcons general manager and Contest Commission Co-Chairman Rich McKay.

The NFL made the switch to high-definition review systems in 2007 — the first of its kind in major American sports. Officials now could review images five times sharper than the previous iteration and freeze images for a closer look. The improved systems were installed in every stadium for $300,000 per team.

"This is a rare opportunity to leverage cutting-edge applied science to ameliorate the integrity of the game. Our referees will now be able to run across images much more clearly, giving reviews in critical situations the level of scrutiny they truly deserve," said Mike Pereira, NFL's vice president of officiating from 2001 to 2009.

A Mod PRACTICE

In the 2014 season, senior officiating staff members within Art McNally GameDay Key (AMGC) in the league'south New York headquarters began consulting direct with the referee during reviews. The move helped ensure that calls are being made consistently across the league.

The review process started in New York. As the referee gathered details about the claiming, replay officials in the stadium and in AMGC compiled the all-time available angles from the broadcast feed. By the time the referee arrived at the booth, the best replays were queued up and prepare for review. The change to a consultation model was aimed at reducing the review's bear on on the length of the game.

While the consultation model largely remains in identify today, the Competition Committee voted to make two additional changes earlier the 2017 season. Final decisions on all replay reviews would come from designated senior members of the officiating department in AMGC and referees view all replay video on wired, manus-held Microsoft Surface tablets.

Yr	Games	Total Plays Reviewed	Avg. Reviews/ Game	Total Plays Reversed	Pct of plays reversed	Avg. Filibuster/ Review
1999	248	195	0.eight	57	29%	2:54
2000	248	247	1.0	84	34%	3:05
2001	248	258	ane.0	89	34%	three:04
2002	256	294	1.i	94	32%	3:01
2003	256	255	1.0	66	26%	3:13
2004	256	283	1.1	88	31%	iii:xviii
2005	256	295	1.two	92	31%	3:16
2006	256	311	i.2	107	34%	two:37
2007	256	327	1.3	122	37%	2:38
2008	256	315	ane.2	117	37%	ii:twoscore
2009	256	328	one.three	126	38%	two:39
2010	256	361	one.4	133	37%	2:42
2011	256	390	1.5	172	44%	2:thirty
2012	256	435	1.7	170	39%	2:33
2013	256	423	one.7	185	44%	2:25
2014	256	439	one.7	151	34%	2:13
2015	256	415	1.6	176	42%	2:sixteen
2016	256	345	1.4	149	43%	2:25
2017	256	429	1.7	196	46%	i:44
2018	256	349	ane.4	172	49%	2:01
2019	256	417	1.half-dozen	196	47%	2:08
2020	256	364	1.4	198	54%	2:26
2021	272	279	1.iii	158	57%	2:23
1999- 2021	5,880	vii,754	ane.32	3,098	40%	2:37

Chicago Bears president Ted Phillips said subsequently the successful 1999 vote, "Nosotros don't know if it's the perfect system."

The perfect arrangement? The NFL may never noticethe perfect organisation. But each twelvemonth, instant replay improves dramatically. Applied science has helped the league come a long way — from stopwatches, walkie-talkies and pagers. And technology will go along to ameliorate the procedure, allowing the league to make rulings correctly and consistently.

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Source: https://operations.nfl.com/officiating/instant-replay/history-of-instant-replay/

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