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COLUMN: Dear NFL, don’t add penalty reviews

Yes, the New Orleans Saints should be facing the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl this season and not the Los Angeles Rams.

But, you know what? That’s part of the human element in sports. Everybody makes mistakes.

Granted, the two officials that were at the 2-yard line easily should have made the pass interference and/or personal foul helmet-to-helmet call. It’s amazing they did not, and I feel bad for the New Orleans fans.

The Saints clearly were not going to win after that dispute. They received opening possession in overtime, but Drew Brees arguably attempted the worst throw of his career, and the Rams capitalized.

The one official who did not make that call, I give props to. He went to Sean Payton, the Saints head coach, and almost immediately told him it was a bad call.

Just to be clear, this column is not about how penalties need to be reviewed. This is about how humans make mistakes, even in the most critical point of one of the biggest games of the season. Games are already long enough as it is with what feels like one play on every drive gets reviewed, at least two with less than two minutes remaining.

We cannot have the games extended any more in any sport.

If fans don’t agree with this, then sports should think about getting rid of officials all together and bring in robots. However, this takes away that human element.

Outside of sports, everybody will make mistakes, no matter who he or she is. It’s just in our blood. We are not robots.

Switching back to the NFC championship, the one problem with the officials missing that call is the game came down to it. It really stinks when a game is remembered for something like that. Remember the “Tuck Rule” controversy? It’s much better when a game like the Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl came down to one great play at the very end, or John Elway’s 98-yard drive against Cleveland.

Even if the call was made, that still doesn’t mean the Saints would have won the game. They could have missed the easy field goal. Maybe the Rams get the ball back with 15 seconds and get a lateral touchdown or close enough to kick a tying field goal. Unfortunately, we will never know.

Again, though, do not make penalties reviewable. If anything, have another official assigned that is not on the field, have him or her quickly review the play from the booth or in New York and relay the message to the head official on the field.

Yeah, why can’t this happen?

This wouldn’t occur over the course of a football game, just the final two minutes of each half. Rewind to the controversial miss call. As soon as the play ends, the game pauses so the head official can speak with the official looking it over in the booth or in New York. All he or she needs to see is about two more replays of it, relay the message and the game continues. Technically it is getting reviewed, but I think of it more as double-checking, whether there’s a difference or not.

Switching sports, imagine if a robot is calling balls and strikes in baseball. Taking out the human element destroys it.

Foul calls can be overturned in the NBA. If you remember, that happened with the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of last year’s NBA Finals. Kevin Durant of the Golden State Warriors was called for blocking on LeBron James. Upon further review, the refs called LeBron for charging, even though they originally reviewed for something else.

If the NFL wants to change its rules and coaches can review penalties, then so be it. I will not agree with it, and it will make watching football games harder than it already is. The one positive from this will be Pittsburgh Steeler fans can no longer blame officials for losing, which they do on a weekly basis. A lot of times, even if they win by 40 points, they still blame them for something. They think they should have won by 47 points.

There are plenty of bad calls and miscalls every week during the football season. Hey, that stuff happens. The Saints should have put that in the past and prove they were the best team in the NFC by driving down the field and getting a touchdown. The Patriots did after the Kansas City Chiefs gained a lot of momentum.

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