NFL should review everything and welcome help from above | Marcus Hayes

At this point, we’re almost hoping the Super Bowl gets spoiled by another botched call. Maybe then, sanity will prevail.

We never liked replay, in any form, in any sport. Still don’t. Players make mistakes; coaches make mistakes; refs make mistakes. It’s part of the game. But, with the advent of highly defined technology and the proliferation of sports highlight shows, replay inevitably became a tiresome part of life. Like cell phones. And Twitter.

Replay has been a topic for decades. It’s been tested and abandoned, and revived and evolved, but it remains beyond imperfect. It is absurdly incomplete.

Why doesn’t replay review include every penalty? Why hasn’t it always? Why does the official in the replay booth have the the power to initiate reviews only in the last two minutes of a half? Why, for the other 56 minutes, put the onus on head coaches, who are standing on the sidelines at field level with less than a minute to decide whether to risk a precious timeout? One NFL coach told me years ago that, without question, throwing a challenge flag — usually on the advice of an assistant or a player — was the most difficult decision he had to make every week.

In 2014, Bill Belichick revived the concept of making all plays subject to review. After officials blew two crucial calls on the same play late in the Rams-Saints NFC championship game, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday that the league would consider including pass interference as a reviewable call.

Currently, only plays that generally involve possession, boundaries, and eligible participation are reviewable. Fouls and such generally are not.

Which seems dumb. A lot of this seems dumb.

The replay conversation was always about making the game as fair and as properly administered as possible. Why dither?

Fear not. It is fixable:

1. Make all plays subject to review. A missed holding call on the left tackle during a touchdown pass, or a blown roughing-the-passer call, is as relevant to the game as a botched pass-interference play.

2. Put a second replay official in the booth, then expand the powers of replay officials to initiate reviews from the replay booth to the entire game, not just the last two minutes of each half.

3. Let replay officials make real-time calls. Goodell said Wednesday that such an idea has been met with opposition in the past, which is nothing more than further evidence of the NFL’s institutional paralysis. If a replay official sees a hold, or offensive pass interference, why shouldn’t he or she buzz the on-field officials? On Sunday, CBS will use 115 cameras equipped with cutting-edge technology to broadcast Super Bowl LIII, but officials on the field won’t be able to see their work; at least, not in real time. We at home will be able to see them — to our advantage. Why not give the officials in the stadium the same advantage?

4. Don’t penalize coaches for being right. Under the current system, teams can risk one of their three timeouts to challenge two calls, and when they’re right both times, they earn a third challenge — but that’s it. So, for instance, if the officials blow three calls by the end of the third quarter, even if a coach’s challenge was upheld all three times, he is left without recourse for the rest of the game ... because the officials got it wrong. Granted, four challenges are rarely needed. Unless you’re playing the Patriots.

There are other considerations.

For one, in a perfect world, there would be a standard number of cameras in standardized positions on every field for every game. It’s patently unfair that a Lions-at-Buccaneers game at 1 p.m. Sunday gets 15 cameras when Eagles-at-Cowboys on Monday Night Football might get twice as many. But that level of common sense seems impossible for the NFL to recognize.

The biggest moments of games — scoring plays and turnovers — already are automatically reviewed, for boundary and possession purposes.

But when a field judge misses an offensive pass-interference call on a receiver who comes wide open for a touchdown catch, that’s OK?

A third-down mistake that would have resulted in a punt essentially is a turnover, but it’s OK for that to happen? Such mistakes can lead to scores, as was the case in the Patriots-Chiefs AFC championship game.

The league will cry “poor” at the prospect of adding personnel and equipment. Please. The NFL made more than $8 billion last year, or more than $250 million per team. And that doesn’t include local revenues, which might more than double that $8 billion number.

Some purists might cry “foul” at the prospect of making games even longer, or further dehumanizing the game. Please. Nobody’s checking his or her watch when hunkering down for a commercial-riddled exercise in physical and intellectual sloth. You’re in for a penny. Be in for a pound.

If it’s about getting it right, then you’ve got to go all-in.

Even if it ruins Super Bowl LIII.