Expert: Vic Winnek - 9/19/2010

Question
Hi,
My question: can a play be reviewed resulting in a penalty that the referee did not call? ...or (as we thought) is it necessary for a flag to be thrown prior to the review in order for the team to be penalized?

Why this came up:
While watching the Boise State/Wyoming game (2nd qt). There was a play in the end zone where the defense (Boise) obviously engaged in a little pass interference resulting in an interception. The play was reviewed and the interception was confirmed.  The commentary was very vocal about the interference and the inevitable penalty that would be called once reviewed.  When it wasn't mentioned by the ref, they didn't understand why the Ref didn't see it during review and penalize Boise...could they have without a yellow flag thrown?

Thank you for your time and GO BRONCOS!


Answer
Autumn,
No the Replay officials cannot give or find a penalty.  Replay has specific guidelines and is used to used to review and make decision that do not involve penalties.  They review - in lay mans terms essentially the action of the ball and action of the player with the ball, proximity to lines [i.e. goalline, sideline, endline] possession, spots of the ball and timing issues.  No matter how obvious the foul might or might not be the replay booth can not review fouls or comment on them.  Maybe someday we can use replay to correct our errors on the field. The reason we don't now is because to call a foul is based in judgement and the official on the field is likely in the best position to call the foul.  Replay can only rely on the TV Camera angle and that is 1 dimensional.  Being on the field is "4" dimensional -  they the officials see the whole action, they feel it, they hear it and they have a flavor of what has been occurring during the game, better than a person in a replay booth.  One day we will figure out how to maximize the use of replay and to reduce out errors.  with that said, officials on the field have less than a 1.7% margin of error - that is excellent for any human endeavor and pretty good when you figure during the course of a game the officials have to make about 14,000 - 18,000 judgements/decisions.

Thanks for the question. The simple answer is No Replay can not call fouls.

Thanks
Thanks for the question.

FOLLOW UP:
Thank you for your rating and comments.  Please feel free to ask future question or if you need play situations or rules explained I will try to to provide you with answers.  If you send me questions between Thursday night and Sunday there may be a delay in my response as I am an on field college official an Sundays work for Fox Sports as an off camera officiating analyst assisting Mike Pereira.  But I promise to get to your questions with full responses.  Boise has become a very good football town with the success of BSU, Chris Peterson, the Humanitarian Bowl and its director Kevin McDonald.