NFL TV Replay Experiment Starts With Tonight’s Game

These things take time, but the National Football League is moving closer to the possible use of TV replays to help perfect the officiating of its games.

As an experiment during the exhibition season, the NFL will use instant replays on possession plays in eight nationally televised games.

The first of these games is tonight’s between the Chargers and Dallas Cowboys at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Art McNally, the league’s supervisor of officials, will be stationed behind a television monitor on the press level. He will view taped replays with an eye to reversing an official’s call if he detects an error on plays involving possession.

The replays are an experiment only, and will not be used during the 1985 regular season. The league’s competition committee will review the results of the experiment before deciding on future use.

One of the problems associated with replays is the time involved in viewing controversial calls and making judgments. In previous experiments, it was found that the replays added 11 minutes to the length of a game.

The NFL this year is attempting to speed up games by as much as 15 minutes, and in last week’s opening exhibitions, the average game was completed in three hours, one minute. What effect this will have on the future use of replays is uncertain.

Charger Coach Don Coryell said he is in favor of replays, within reason.

“Officials are human,” he said. “They can’t always see a play from the best angle. Anything we can do to make the game end up as it was played on the field is great for football.”

Stay tuned.