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Life’s instant replays: They don’t exist

by Tony Basilio

To me, sport’s greatest appeal lies in the fact that it mirrors life. In life, as in sports, the best and brightest don’t always win. Nor do the most-prepared. The playing field isn’t always level. From sport, we learn the world doesn’t have perfect symmetry, and that we don’t have all the answers. Every game, like every day, is an adventure.

But now television threatens to change all that. Televised sports have ushered in an era of absolutes. From the high-tech sports coverage of today, we get sterility, uniformity, and rigidly defined boundaries. And it’s boring.

Last week in Nashville, Mike Slive, Commissioner of the SEC, said the ‘R’ word, introducing the concept of instant replay into SEC lexicon. He told a group of reporters for the first time, on the record, that the league will spend the off-season weighing the pros and cons of replay.

Let me start the balloting with a vote against. What could be worse than sitting in Neyland Stadium for a four-hour nationally televised CBS game? Try a four-hour CBS game with instant replay.

Now maybe you’re saying, “But Tony, don’t you remember what it was like when the Vols got ripped off back in ’01 when Jabar Gafney dropped a touchdown catch that he was credited with?” Sure, I remember. Just as Florida fans remember the mismanagement at the end of the ’04 UT-Florida game by the zebras just a few weeks back. In other words, the game mirrors life: What comes around goes around. And if it doesn’t go around, maybe it wasn’t meant to be.

The eye of the camera has swallowed the romance of the unknown. Were those really in-game, live interviews with managers I saw during the World Series on Fox Network? What is the point of interviewing participants while the game is still in progress? What insight is gained from this tripe? Shouldn’t some things be left unsaid? Or more to the point, unasked?

In the past decade, we’ve seen helmet cams, roving cams, studio cams and now “sky” cams—you know, that annoying guy wire with a camera hooked to it that hovers just a few feet over the field of play at Neyland Stadium during an ESPN or CBS game. Sky cam has all the network poobahs soiling their suits, but to me, this kind of high-tech intrusion is akin to watching everyone walk around naked. At what point do we say, “Enough is enough”?

Sports fans today simply have too much access. Ever seen anything dumber than sideline reporters talking with coaches at halftime? What’s the next step? The Locker Room Channel? See your favorite athlete or coach bare it all! Nothing is sacred anymore. I’m picturing Warren Sapp nude on the new NFL-LRC, and it ain’t pretty. Not any more than the idea of instant replay in SEC football.

The Big Ten is enjoying its first year of instant replay, the result of a gross overreaction to a spate of bad officiating last year. Penn State got screwed at least three times in 2003, and Joe Paterno still carries a big stick. The fact that the conference instituted replay at his behest is but one more reason to believe that Joe Pa has stuck around a year too long.

Replay proponents will no doubt cite the number of televised games, and the fact that it’s important to get the calls right. Why? What about sport teaching us how to overcome undeserved adversity? Have you ever lost a file that you worked on for hours? It wasn’t fair, and you cursed yourself a blue streak. But you had to overcome. Ever had a boss who didn’t like you? It wasn’t fair, yet you had to make it work. Why should it be any different in sports?

Maybe I’m naive, but sports are more than just a television product to me. I long for the days of three-hour games when Terry Bradshaw was nothing but a washed-up quarterback. What a magical time it was when Joe Namath’s inebriated pass intended for Suzy Kolber wouldn’t have been televised. And speaking of Suzy Kolber, what’s with all those the Barbie dolls on the sidelines anyway?

Maybe the network suits are right. Maybe the quality of sport isn’t strong enough to sustain itself. Then again, some days it feels like life itself sucks. If only we had a chance to do it over.

Listen up! Tune in and talk sports with Tony Basilio weekdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on ESPN Radio WVLZ 1180 AM.

November 4, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 45 © 2004 Metro Pulse