I tried to stay above the fray. I really did.
Go back and read SFN’s comments on the topic. Note that we were very careful to focus on the failure to use replay and didn’t harp on the result of the replay; which…upon further review…indicated that Akron’s running back failed to score a touchdown on the game’s final play. All we chose to stress was the same thing the rest of the world was stressing and that the Fayetteville Observer succintly expressed:
But it doesn’t matter whether the knee of Akron running back Dennis Kennedy hit the ground before the ball broke the plane of the end zone or not. If there’s a replay system in effect and a game-deciding score on the final play happens, it SHOULD be reviewed. Otherwise, what’s the point of having such a system?
I got pretty steamed yesterday when I saw quotes from UNC-CH grad and ACC director of officials Tommy Hunt. Hunt not only refused to admit the obvious that the play shuold have been reviewed more thoroughly by the game officials; he went so far as to use terms like “clearly” to describe the situation (as if there was no doubt about anything).
Hunt’s chutzpah really bothered me. His ability and willingness to proclaim without the slightest reservation that the result of the play was so unalienably clear was an insult to everyone’s intelligence. Again, I tried not to focus on the absurdity that everything that was so obviously murky was so crystal clear to Tommy Hunt.
But, today’s comments take the cake. Check out the following quote from today’s N&O:
Everything I saw looked like he scored; all the shots we got on video look like he scored,” Hunt said Monday. “We don’t count on still pictures. They are not dependable. We always get an amateur picture [in situations like this]. A running picture is much more valuable than a still photo.”
First, I need I need Cardiff Giant on this one. Cardiff, where are you? I challenge you to satire Hunt’s comments about “Running Pictures”. Running pictures? Is this 1930? I can’t get the thought of silent movies and Charlie Chaplin out of my head. It harkens to Lee Fowler and Bobby Purcell’s disdain 21st century techonology and the evil internet. Cardiff…this is your charge!
Second, I’d like to draw your attention to Hunt’s comments in the N&O ONE DAY EARLIER!
“We only had three shots of that play and no cameras on the goal line,” said Hunt, who attended the Duke-Wake Forest game in Winston-Salem. “[But] our person in the booth can slow it down, re-run it, FRAME IT, and he said it was a touchdown. Officials [also] said it was clearly a touchdown. When I saw it on ESPN, I concurred with their call.”
Wow. Could he be more of an idiot? Seriously. No wonder the moron is being forced into retirement this year. (Hopefully John Swofford can find another Carolina grad to slide into his spot before too many people post for the position)
* On one hand, Hunt procaims that the replay officials are in a great situation because they can STOP the video to “FRAME IT”…which then becomes the equivalent of…you guessed it…A PICTURE!
* But, on the other hand, they “don’t count on still pictures” because “they are not dependable”.
So, if “still pictures” are not dependable, then why do the replay officials slow down and STOP videos to make calls?
What Hunt should be articulating (even though it would make his case look even weaker) is the importance of THE ANGLE of the picture, be it a photograph or one of these fancy “moving pictures”. I actually believe and understand his comment that, “We always get an amateur picture [in situations like this].” But, just because something is an amateur photograph doesn’t make it any less credible. The key element in this is THE ANGLE OF THE PICTURE, not the nature of it being still or moving.
Hunt has talked so much that he has admitted the problem without being smart enough to recognize it, “We only had three shots of that play and no cameras on the goal line.” He is so married to his position that he can’t admit that his cameras were NOT in as good of a position as the photograph that was taken by Chris Coker in the stands.
The problem is not the nature of the pictures; the problem is the angle of the pictures and the inability of Tommy Hunt to (insert your complaint here).
