Not Even Instant Replays Would Have Aided Rams’ Cause in New Jersey

The Rams’ problems with officials in New Jersey last weekend helped dredge up that age-old debate: Should pro football adopt the use of on-sight television instant replays?

The Rams feel strongly about this point. Last month, they were one of 16 National Football League teams that voted in favor of using instant replay as an officiating aid for this season’s playoffs. The balloting was in favor, 16-8, with one abstention and three clubs absent, but a three-fourths majority was required.

Interestingly, the Giants voted against.

Two years ago, the Rams proposed limited use of instant replay in the form of cameras focused down the sidelines and goal lines, such as line judges in tennis. That also lost.

But not even instant replay could have saved the Rams Sunday in New Jersey. The plays involving LeRoy Irvin’s pass interference and Bobby Duckworth’s non-touchdown were, strictly speaking, judgment calls. TV replays were not conclusive.

The Rams may have argued, but the officials drawing their ire were among the best-qualified the sport has to offer.

Jerry Markbreit, the referee at Sunday’s game, is a 10-year veteran who handled Super Bowl XVII at Pasadena two years ago. He was the youngest referee ever to work a Super Bowl, for which all of the officials are selected totally on merit, not on a rotation system such as baseball uses.

Field judge Bill Stanley, who flagged down Irvin, is a 12-year veteran.

And no official in the NFL has been at it longer (26 years) or worked as many Super Bowls (5) as back judge Tom Kelleher, who ruined Duckworth’s day.

Of course, working NFL games is only a part-time job for these and other officials. Markbreit is listed by the NFL as a “barter and marketing manager” from Skokie, Ill. Stanley is a junior college athletic director. Kelleher is president of a marketing company in Miami.

Occasionally, there is a clamor for “full-time” NFL officials, which would be a mistake. The current group is the best available, and most would quit rather than give up their careers.

Besides, football is played only once a week. What would full-time officials do the rest of the time--practice throwing their handkerchieves?

It’s not easy to talk to these men about their weekend work. To avoid distraction and harassment, the NFL disallows all interviews once the season starts and for many years would not even permit them to be questioned after games.

Then, under pressure from the Pro Football Writers Assn., the league instituted a pool reporter system, whereby designated writers may enter the officials’ dressing room after a game.

Sunday, the officials responded firmly in a brief interview with three reporters. The operative phrase was in my judgment .

The whole procedure lasted three minutes--and changed nothing. It was too late then.

But a few years ago the NFL took another significant step to upgrade the efficiency of its officitiating, at the expense of occasionally appearing foolish. About once a game these days, a yellow flag flies, after which the officials consult and the referee emerges to announce there is no infraction, after all. “The flag was a mistake,” he says.

It happened in New Jersey Sunday after the Rams’ Vince Newsome slammed headlong into the Giants’ Phil McConkey, who was looking up trying to field one of Dale Hatcher’s towering punts. McConkey didn’t called for a fair catch, so Newsome let him have it.

A yellow flag and the ball flew over McConkey’s head at about the same time, followed closely by Ram Coach John Robinson claiming--correctly--that the hit was legal, a fact Markbreit apparently explained to his erring colleague.

Later in the game, Markbreit risked bodily injury by diving into a pileup to determine whether Eric Dickerson or the Giants’ Curtis McGriff had recovered Dickerson’s fumble. He found they both had, so the Rams retained possession.

The zebras try. Occasionally, they foul up. They’re human.