Here’s my idea for drastically shortening replay review times. The league office announces before the season that they are going to favor either the offense or the defense all season on close plays. It works in any sport. Everyone in the sport knows the deal in advance.
Example 1 – NFL announces they are favoring offenses for this season. If a running back is close to crossing the goal line, the refs can’t see the ball conclusively, so they favor the offense and call it a TD. Replay officials have 30 seconds to see clear evidence it wasn’t a TD. After 30 seconds their screens go dark and the call stands. If a wrong call isn’t obvious after 30 seconds, too bad. Move on.
Example 2 – MLB could actually do both. They could favor the defense (the pitcher) with the strike zone by calling anything on the edge a strike. And then they could favor the offense everywhere else. A runner is deemed to be safe unless it’s painfully clear he is out. Again, 30 seconds to review any challenge to change the call or not, then move on. So, the onus is on the batter to swing the bat and it’s on the defense to clearly throw a runner out.
