NFL games seem to take longer than ever these days between coaches’ challenges and plays that are automatically reviewed, and Jon Gruden is tired of it.
In an interview with Men’s Fitness, Gruden said he would like to see the NFL make zero plays reviewable. That’s right — none of them.
“I would eliminate all of it,” Gruden said, via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. “Everything’s disputed now. Was he inbounds? Was it a turnover? It’s taken the juice out of the stadium. There are too many timeouts. Let the people on the field officiate and hold them accountable. Look, there’s going to be some bang-bang plays that have to be officiated. And who’s going to make the decision? The instant replay man in New York City?”
There’s really no debating that instant replay disrupts the flow of the game, but it is here to stay. The NFL tries to drill into the heads of its fans that nothing is more important than the “integrity of the game,” and reviewing plays leads to more correct calls. In fact, the league is looking into the possibility of adding more cameras and expanding replay.
The NFL is more popular than ever, and every game is heavily scrutinized — especially now that we are fully engulfed in the social media age. Even with replay, we have seen officials make crucial mistakes like this and somehow allow clock errors in the final two minutes of a three-point game. Holding officials accountable for everything, as Gruden says, would almost be dangerous at this point.
