Replay eliminates great plays

Instant replay has helped correct numerous poor calls over the years, but there are times when even great plays are nullified due to their illegality.

During the Cowboys-Cardinals game today, Cardinals quarterback targeted wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald on a fade route in the right corner of the end zone. Warner threw a beautiful, arching pass towards the corner, where only Fitzgerald could grab it. And Fitzgerald did, contorting his body with his back to the crowd, placing his left foot down as his momentum was taking him out the side of the end zone. However, he tried landing his right foot just inside the side white line, the line that is the right boundary of the end zone.

At first glimpse, it appeared that Fitzgerald got his right foot down, but replay showed that the right edge of his right foot touched the white line, indicating that he was out-of-bounds and nullifying his touchdown.

The call was correct, since Fitzgerald was out-of-bounds. But it was still a spectacular combination of balance and grace for the wide receiver to attempt to place both his feet in the end zone. And considering that his right foot, barely, just barely, was out-of-bounds, it was disappointing to see a wonderful effort stripped away and essentially lost forever in the ever-expanding list of NFL touchdown plays.

I understand that black and white issue that replay attempts to solve (either a foot is in or out, a ball is dropped or caught), but it seems that some plays are so close to being technically legal. As a fan, I just wish some plays could be left alone as a means of rewarding an outstanding effort from a player.

Of course, the Cardinals received another chance at scoring a touchdown. And guess what the scoring play was? A fade route by Fitzgerald for a touchdown.

Red River officiating

It seems that we're in a sports world littered with writers proclaiming every player, play, game and team to be the "greatest" or "worst" ever. Part of this is probably meant as a way to generate interest in one's column and perhaps even provoke thought in the reader. Another reason for this may be that, as human beings, we probably act with a greater level of emotion to an event we have just witnessed, since we are able to recall a greater number of details from a game or play we've just watched than from a game or play 1, 5 or 10 years ago.

So, I will join in the "best" or "worst" foray -- that I typically despise. But yesterday's Texas-Oklahoma game was seemingly a contest among the referees in "worst calls of all-time." The two roughing the passer calls against Oklahoma linebacker Travis Lewis on Texas quarterback Colt McCoy were unforgivably horrendous. There is something to be said for protecting the health of quarterbacks, but throwing a flag (or two) on a defender who is visibly letting up on running down a quarterback headed for the sidelines is asinine. If the calls were made because McCoy was running along the Texas sidelines, the calls were still atrocious. What difference should it make what sideline a player is running along? The refs should've taken in account that Lewis slowed down and even tried to help prop up McCoy as he ran into him.

The Oklahoma interception in Texas' endzone which was ruled a dropped pass was equally frustrating. The player clearly caught the ball in the endzone, held onto it as he fell to the ground and let it fall from his grasp only after he hit the ground. Television viewers were able to see this as it happened in realtime, so why couldn't the refs, even with the benefit of replay?

I'm not implying that there was a conspiracy against Oklahoma (there were some very bad calls made against Texas), but one would hope the quality of officiating in such a big game would be much better.