I have a real-life example of what you're talking about. I went to see a movie at the Mann's Chinese Theatre. We got there a little early, so my girlfriend (at the time) wanted to get a coffee. We buy one from the theatre's outside concession stand, walk around looking at the handprints and stars for a few minutes, and then go to enter the theatre. The guy at the door says, "No outside food or drinks." I explained that we bought the coffee from their concession, so it was okay. He says, "No outside food or drinks." I then thought maybe if I explained the WHY of the rule, he'd understand my point. He says, "Sorry, no outside food or drinks." So, in the end, we had to throw out the coffee we bought from them because of a rule that ensures people buy their food and drinks from them.
Bonus: We get to our seats, and I kid you not, two people sitting a couple of rows in front of us had a whole rotisserie chicken. The concession stand did not serve fully cooked birds.
Hahaha. I have a story so much like this. I remember going to Typhoon Saloon in Pacific Beach during its heyday in the early 2000s, and they had a bunch of booth babes in there promoting some alcohol brand or another. They were throwing out t-shirts to the crowd and my friend caught one. He put it on over his other shirt and not five minutes later one of the many bouncers pushed his way over and told my friend, "Hey, you have to take that off, we don't allow any logo tees in here."
There was a Roger Goodell profile a few years back where someone close to him explained that he had a chip on his shoulder about never becoming a lawyer, and so many things immediately made sense after that.
Going to miss the point of this post altogether and bring up the technical point that in rugby, what matters is the direction the pass leaves the hands relative to the goal line of the attack.
So as long as it left the hands going back it should be a play on because of, like you pointed out, physics!
I've been staunchly anti-instant replay in all sports for a while now.
If it's something immediate and near irrefutable (like I think tennis has?) then sure, go for it. Otherwise, that's what the officials on the field are there for.* Sometimes they'll fuck up! That's ok!
*Though you can definitely tell football refs sometimes make calls specifically so they can get looked at via replay, which is maybe the worst of both possible things.
I swear to god this isn't a dog whistle, but I feel the NBA is like this now. Every time I watch it, which isn't that often anymore, I feel like the last two minutes takes about 45 minutes.
They have to slow down every loose ball and every ball going-out-of-bounds to see “well, the ball grazed the last layer of epidermis on this player, but the hem of this player’s shorts might have touched it...”
I don't know how you fix it, because you do want them to get it right. But stopping every 3 seconds to have the officials gather around a 13-inch Magnavox TV — I mean, is that really the best TV they can afford? — to dissect every moment of the game absolutely destroys any momentum.
Oh man, I could write a whole other rant on the "slow-motion replay to determine whether it's a regular foul or a flagrant 1/2" thing. If you can't tell whether it was flagrant in real time then it's not flagrant! What are we even doing here???
This is, aside from how awful I am at the game, probably the biggest reason I never got into basketball. In close, important games, it just turns into something completely different near the end. CAN THEY FOUL FAST ENOUGH???
Amen. I'm a massive NHL fan (as in I like the sport a lot, not that I'm a big huge fat guy), and I can attest that there are dumb things in hockey like this. I won't bother getting into the details of any one example, but several times per game, fans on the chat board I follow say, "This review could go either way because no one knows the rules." The constant stopping for rule analysis is one of the main reasons I stopped watching football (that and Ray Rice punching his fiancée unconscious, then dragging her out of the elevator, and the NFL's response being, 'Meh'). Many sports have gotten so far in the weeds of their rulebooks that they've forgotten the point of the rules. The rules have often become the game - like the sport is a hypothetical for some nerdy referee debate team to litigate. Frankly, any sport that needs a rules analyst for their broadcasts has a rules problem.*
*No sport needs one, though. Bringing in another doofus to give his opinion on a judgment call is the dumbest endeavor in broadcasting. We already have two to three doofuses doing this every game.
And while we are at it can we make it so (WHOPPER, WHOPPER, FUCK YOU, WHOPPPER. BEEEEE-KAAAAAY!) having one foot down counts as a catch in the pros? It'll make for a better (LEEEEMOO EMUUUU and DOUG!) and more exciting product.
"Moreover, if every pass had to be litigated according to the fucking Newtonian laws of relative motion and subject to slow-motion replays, the sport of rugby probably wouldn’t exist at all."
I don't watch a lot of sports anymore - for many of the reasons that are already covered. But it seems like instant replay should only be for obvious stuff. Like "hey - refs totally missed another player kicking another player in the nuts" or "giant clusterfuck - let's review this". If I recall some things aren't reviewable? Which is a total committee meeting move.
Other areas that are much more cleanly quantifiable, as someone else mentioned, like tennis in or out, or baseball ball/strike should be fully automated. Just keep the stupid games moving at a good clip. Otherwise I'll just pretend to watch the Masters while I do my taxes.
I'm not a sports guy but one season I followed a deep NHL playoff run by my local team and I was amazed at how much time it took several days a week. I couldn't imagine wanting to do that regularly.
Association football (i.e., soccer) has this in VAR. It’s by no means perfect, but they do review the critical stuff—was he offside, was there a handball, was that kick in the nuts incidental or should he get a red card for it. And at least it doesn’t take too much away from game play, unlike American football, where the whole point of the sport seems to be not doing actual game play but rather standing around doing nothing.
I have a real-life example of what you're talking about. I went to see a movie at the Mann's Chinese Theatre. We got there a little early, so my girlfriend (at the time) wanted to get a coffee. We buy one from the theatre's outside concession stand, walk around looking at the handprints and stars for a few minutes, and then go to enter the theatre. The guy at the door says, "No outside food or drinks." I explained that we bought the coffee from their concession, so it was okay. He says, "No outside food or drinks." I then thought maybe if I explained the WHY of the rule, he'd understand my point. He says, "Sorry, no outside food or drinks." So, in the end, we had to throw out the coffee we bought from them because of a rule that ensures people buy their food and drinks from them.
Bonus: We get to our seats, and I kid you not, two people sitting a couple of rows in front of us had a whole rotisserie chicken. The concession stand did not serve fully cooked birds.
Hahaha. I have a story so much like this. I remember going to Typhoon Saloon in Pacific Beach during its heyday in the early 2000s, and they had a bunch of booth babes in there promoting some alcohol brand or another. They were throwing out t-shirts to the crowd and my friend caught one. He put it on over his other shirt and not five minutes later one of the many bouncers pushed his way over and told my friend, "Hey, you have to take that off, we don't allow any logo tees in here."
There was a Roger Goodell profile a few years back where someone close to him explained that he had a chip on his shoulder about never becoming a lawyer, and so many things immediately made sense after that.
Going to miss the point of this post altogether and bring up the technical point that in rugby, what matters is the direction the pass leaves the hands relative to the goal line of the attack.
So as long as it left the hands going back it should be a play on because of, like you pointed out, physics!
I mean I just wrote a whole thing about a mostly irrelevant play in a football game from a week ago so I'm pretty sure you're allowed to digress here.
I've been staunchly anti-instant replay in all sports for a while now.
If it's something immediate and near irrefutable (like I think tennis has?) then sure, go for it. Otherwise, that's what the officials on the field are there for.* Sometimes they'll fuck up! That's ok!
*Though you can definitely tell football refs sometimes make calls specifically so they can get looked at via replay, which is maybe the worst of both possible things.
I swear to god this isn't a dog whistle, but I feel the NBA is like this now. Every time I watch it, which isn't that often anymore, I feel like the last two minutes takes about 45 minutes.
They have to slow down every loose ball and every ball going-out-of-bounds to see “well, the ball grazed the last layer of epidermis on this player, but the hem of this player’s shorts might have touched it...”
I don't know how you fix it, because you do want them to get it right. But stopping every 3 seconds to have the officials gather around a 13-inch Magnavox TV — I mean, is that really the best TV they can afford? — to dissect every moment of the game absolutely destroys any momentum.
Oh man, I could write a whole other rant on the "slow-motion replay to determine whether it's a regular foul or a flagrant 1/2" thing. If you can't tell whether it was flagrant in real time then it's not flagrant! What are we even doing here???
This is, aside from how awful I am at the game, probably the biggest reason I never got into basketball. In close, important games, it just turns into something completely different near the end. CAN THEY FOUL FAST ENOUGH???
I'm a terrific basketball player and the replay slow downs make the games suck.
Amen. I'm a massive NHL fan (as in I like the sport a lot, not that I'm a big huge fat guy), and I can attest that there are dumb things in hockey like this. I won't bother getting into the details of any one example, but several times per game, fans on the chat board I follow say, "This review could go either way because no one knows the rules." The constant stopping for rule analysis is one of the main reasons I stopped watching football (that and Ray Rice punching his fiancée unconscious, then dragging her out of the elevator, and the NFL's response being, 'Meh'). Many sports have gotten so far in the weeds of their rulebooks that they've forgotten the point of the rules. The rules have often become the game - like the sport is a hypothetical for some nerdy referee debate team to litigate. Frankly, any sport that needs a rules analyst for their broadcasts has a rules problem.*
*No sport needs one, though. Bringing in another doofus to give his opinion on a judgment call is the dumbest endeavor in broadcasting. We already have two to three doofuses doing this every game.
And while we are at it can we make it so (WHOPPER, WHOPPER, FUCK YOU, WHOPPPER. BEEEEE-KAAAAAY!) having one foot down counts as a catch in the pros? It'll make for a better (LEEEEMOO EMUUUU and DOUG!) and more exciting product.
"Moreover, if every pass had to be litigated according to the fucking Newtonian laws of relative motion and subject to slow-motion replays, the sport of rugby probably wouldn’t exist at all."
This made me chortle, very eloquent Vince
I don't watch a lot of sports anymore - for many of the reasons that are already covered. But it seems like instant replay should only be for obvious stuff. Like "hey - refs totally missed another player kicking another player in the nuts" or "giant clusterfuck - let's review this". If I recall some things aren't reviewable? Which is a total committee meeting move.
Other areas that are much more cleanly quantifiable, as someone else mentioned, like tennis in or out, or baseball ball/strike should be fully automated. Just keep the stupid games moving at a good clip. Otherwise I'll just pretend to watch the Masters while I do my taxes.
I'm not a sports guy but one season I followed a deep NHL playoff run by my local team and I was amazed at how much time it took several days a week. I couldn't imagine wanting to do that regularly.
You should try World of Warcraft
Association football (i.e., soccer) has this in VAR. It’s by no means perfect, but they do review the critical stuff—was he offside, was there a handball, was that kick in the nuts incidental or should he get a red card for it. And at least it doesn’t take too much away from game play, unlike American football, where the whole point of the sport seems to be not doing actual game play but rather standing around doing nothing.
As someone who has been extremely stressed out by the fires (I’m 5 miles from the Sunset one) and hates Ohio State… I’m glad you wrote this
I'm over in Michigan. I'm sorry for what's happening to you guys and absolutely despise osu as well.