Pete Carroll talking to NFL about how to expand replay review
Pete Carroll figures if the NFL is going with more replay reviews, why not go all in?
The Seahawks coach said Monday, a day after a controversial non-call of pass interference and brief replay review in league headquarters went against Seattle late in its loss Sunday to San Francisco, he has talked to the NFL’s supervisor of officiating about expanding replay reviews.
Carroll wants league senior vice president of officiating Al Riveron to have live access during games to the coaches’ film cameras each team operates for each game. Those angles are different than the network-television angles Riveron uses in New York to make final determinations on replay reviews.
“Just to gain more access,” Carroll said Monday. “They have so many faculties there that they can do a lot of stuff in a hurry, and they’ve got a lot of people, and all that. Just take advantage of every outlet.
“It would make it more consistent on what they can see, too, because the TV shots are so varied.”
Carroll said he has spoken to Riveron about this and that the league’s officiating chief has been open to suggestions on improving the system that is about as popular as 40-degree rain.
Carroll said he talked to Riveron Monday about the hitting and grabbing Seahawks tight end Jacob Hollister and 49ers linebacker Fred Warner traded before and as Russell Wilson’s pass in the final seconds arrived near them at the goal line Sunday night. NBC’s television replays showed Hollister initiating contact as he broke to his inside route, then Warner grabbing Hollister at both shoulders as Wilson’s throw was in flight.
Riveron told a league pool reporter after the Seahawks’ last-second, 26-21 loss that has them going to Philadelphia Sunday in an NFC wild-card game instead of home for a playoff opener that he did review the Hollister-Warner play.
“We actually did perform a review,” Riveron told the pool reporter Sunday night. “But based on what we saw, we didn’t see enough to stop the game. But we did review it...we see the offensive player come in and initiate the contact on the defensive player—nothing that rises to the level of a foul which significantly hinders the defender. The defender then braces himself. And there is contact then by the defender on the receiver.
“Again, nothing which rises to the level of a foul based on visual evidence.”
This is the end of that play, after Hollister’s initial contact before the second-down throw, as seen on NBC’s game broadcast:
Two plays later, ending with Hollister getting stopped inches from the goal line following a fourth-down pass, the Niners and not the Seahawks were the NFC West champions.
Some of the issue with the Hollister no-PI play is when the contact happened. The league’s new replay-review system for pass interference instituted for this season on a one-year basis subject to renewal is only for strict pass-interference rulings. By rule that is illegal, impeding contact when a pass is in the air.
Carroll implied Monday the Seahawks’ coaches copy showed even more of a foul that could have changed Riveron’s opinion, that it would have showed the illegal contact was when the ball was in flight and thus was pass interference.
“The officials have called the season just like they’ve always called it, and left the next level of the decision-making that’s going on in New York,” Carroll said.
“I cannot imagine, if we want to work to make this thing as good as it can possibly be, that we should be victim, sometimes, to what the TV copy has, as opposed to all the other angles that we could present. I think the coaches’ copy—along with the TV copy—of a play that was in question in this game can be aided by seeing, you know, when the ball came out (of the quarterback’s hand) from the side view, so they can make a determination where was the ball in flight and the action and how that all happened.
“So I think there are advances yet to go, to make it even better. If we are going to rely on an outside source to factor in, I think we should give them everything that is available, not just what happens to be on the broadcast that day, and they either got a good shot of it or they didn’t.
“And so, there’s a lot of—and I know they are talking about that kind of stuff, too—but we need to keep working at it if we are going to go this way.”
Carroll acknowledged he has never been a proponent of expanding instant replay reviews of officials calls.
“Just because of all the mess that it brings,” he said. “But it’s here, and we’ve got to do it the best possible (way). And, for them, in the league office, I know they are thinking about the options and they are weighing all of the ways that they can get better at it.
“We’ll see what happens. I don’t know how fast it could happen, if it could flip to next season or not. It did a lot this year, from one year to the next, so then again maybe we could do it. But we can continue to help them.
“It’s obviously really hard. If it was easy, everybody would have already figured it out. It’s a very difficult part of the game. And it continues to be in question.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2019 at 4:27 PM.
