[ajmc]

The game of football has progressed fairly well, over the past 130+ years operating under, what some may conclude, is an antiquated, non-technical judgment system whereby game officials, who are expected to thoroughly understand the rules and their intent, were designated to observe the action and decide if, and to what extent, there were violations. Those impartial judgments, right or wrong, were it. There was some discussion, workable processes for instant appeal were developed, but the decisions, unless proven wrong, were upheld, and the game continued on.

That system is not perfect, but the imperfections are balanced and, for generations, applied equally to both participating teams. Fairly recently we've added "Instant Replay" which allows analysis of every action down to the gnat's eyelash level of accuracy.

Has all this technology, and the higher level of accuracy it provides improved the game? That answer, like "beauty", is largely as seen, "in the eye of the beholder". Perfection is always a laudable objective, but often the closer you get to it, perfection turns out NOT to all it's cracked up to be, or as necessary as imagined. Has IR reduced the number, or intensity of disagreements? On the contrary, all we seem to be accomplishing is finding new ways to see beyond a gnat's eyelash, to argue about that which is less and less relevant to the game being played.

The simple fact that IR has proven beneficial in specific, limited circumstances doesn't guarantee that it is suitable for every circumstance.

I understand IR can be the difference between life and death, whan related to point spreads, over and unders and even wins and losses, but isn't gambling on sports events STILL considered to be a negative idea?

I seem to recall, when the whole IR situation was just a concept, there was absolute predictions and guarantees that the use of IR would in NO WAY affect, intimidate or coerce the actual calls of officials on the field. That guarantee has evaporated and gone the way of, "The free lunch", "the check is in the mail" and "Obama Care is going to improve medical care and reduce cost".

There is absolutely no doubt, nuclear warheads on mouse traps will effectively get rid of mice, but......