NFL keeps taking baby steps toward full embrace of a sky judge

For the past 25 years, the NFL's approach to expanding the replay-review process has gone like this: Wait for a non-reviewable situation to create a controversy, and then expand replay to cover it in the future.

This bit-by-bit approach has accelerated in recent years, with replay assist providing a more efficient and expedient way to make real-time fixes without the delay of a full-blown replay review.

Now, as the NFL approaches the offseason with a plan to add to the replay function currently non-reviewable plays like facemask calls and unnecessary roughness for quarterback slides, someone needs to take a step back and ask the obvious question.

Why not use it for everything?

Replay review and replay assist helps to smooth out the disconnect between the things that the officials see at full speed with the naked eye (while also trying not to be trampled) and the things everyone else sees on 4K flatscreens.

The solution is simple. Put a member of the officiating crew in the booth and have that person collaborate with the on-field officials based on things that can be seen via video and missed by the folks who are intermingled with the players. It would be a full member of the crew, wearing black and white stripes and regularly captured in the broadcast. The person knows the rules. The person has worked on the field for multiple games. The person can direct flags to be dropped or picked up, and to rectify any other mistakes made by folks who, despite doing their best, can't see everything.

And, yes, the entire replay process cries out for more transparency. The UFL has perfected it. The NFL still shuns even the suggestion of it.

At a time when more and more people think the NFL is rigged (it's not), shining a light on the conversations between the replay booth and the referee will enhance the integrity of and public confidence in the game of professional football — especially at a time when the NFL is stuffing millions in its pockets from gambling sponsorships without reinvesting enough of that money to ensure the highest degree of accuracy in the calls made and not made.

Maybe the league is getting there, one annual meeting at a time. At some point, the ongoing expansion of replay review and replay assist will prompt someone to realize that everything should be reviewable.

Hopefully, the league will get there sooner than later. Ideally, it'll happen in March.