Compared to the Instant Replay, Field Officials Do a Good Job, Robinson Says

All right, John Robinson. Stop pulling your punches and beating around the bush and tell us how you really feel about the National Football League’s newest rule:

“I hate the instant replay. It’s one of the worst things ever to come into our business.”

So said the coach of the Rams Monday in Anaheim, speaking before a gathering of Western Region Associated Press Sports Editors. Robinson, who deals in hyperbole quite well, wasn’t really as angry about the new rule as he was having fun at its expense. Nevertheless, he ended up making one of the strongest condemnations so far by any NFL coach of the rule that puts another official in the press box as an eye in the sky.

When Robinson was finished with his slightly tongue-in-cheek harangue, it was clear that instant replay had gone to the bottom of the list of his favorite things in life, replacing smog, broken arms and measles.

“I feel robbed of the human element,” he said. “Something happens now and you turn around and look up at the press box. I’ve always resented the press box, anyway. Now, you’ve got to stand there and wait while some poor, old gray-haired guy looks at the screen and says to himself, ‘I don’t want to do this job.’

“The press box isn’t part of the game. If this guy is going to have such a great effect on the game, at least put him in a box down near the field and put a striped jersey on him. Then, at least, I can run down there and kick the box he’s sitting in.”

Robinson said the change was so radical that it had prompted drastic--and frightening--changes in him.

“I have much more affection for the officials on the field now,” he said, grimacing. “I talk about ‘we’ and ‘they,’ and I’m starting to think of the referees on the field as ‘we.’

“Let’s just let the guys on the field call ‘em like they see ‘em.”