Billick: Replay is broken

Ravens head coach sounds off on system after game

By Don Banks, SI.com

BALTIMORE -- Convinced the NFL's instant replay system is broken in its current form, Baltimore head coach Brian Billick colorfully and demonstratively joined the anti-replay crowd Sunday.

"I quit,'' said Billick in his postgame news conference, just warming up. "I give up. I've tried to be an advocate for the instant replay. I've tried to do the company line. I've said the right things. Dump the whole [expletive] thing. We have spent so much money on this thing and it doesn't work.

"I've tried. League, I'm sorry. I've tried to hold up and hold the line. Get rid of the whole damn thing, because it doesn't work. It doesn't work. Move on.''

At issue were a pair of receptions, or non-receptions as it were, by Ravens tight end Todd Heap in a 26-6 victory against the Broncos. Denver successfully challenged an 11-yard second-quarter reception by Heap that was ruled a touchdown on the field, and in the third quarter, Baltimore unsuccessfully challenged a play on which officials ruled that Heap never had possession.

Billick is 0-for-4 in replay rulings the past two weeks. He lost a pair of challenges in last week's 34-26 loss at Cincinnati.

"I'm calling Tony [Dungy] tomorrow,'' Billick said.

Dungy, the head coach of the Colts, is an NFL Competition Committee member and a leading member of the league's anti-replay faction.

"Tony, you've got another ally. Come the league meetings, we'll see where it goes.''

Billick's primary beef was with Sunday's first replay challenge, when referee Ron Winter overturned Heap's 11-yard touchdown catch, ruling that he never had possession of the ball before losing it -- and his helmet -- courtesy of a jolting hit by Denver linebacker Al Wilson.

Heap appeared to have the ball firmly in grasp as he landed with both feet down in the end zone and took two steps. Replays showed the ball did not come out until he fell flat on his back after being hammered by Wilson. On the play, the officials huddled briefly in the end zone before ruling it a touchdown, buying Denver head coach Mike Shanahan some time to consider a challenge. At the time, Denver led 3-0 early in the second quarter.

"For them to linger as long as they did, which usually means they don't have irrefutable evidence, and then to come out and say there was no possession,'' Billick said in exasperation. "I'm just done with it.''

Heap was equally at a loss to explain the catch/non-catch call.

"Either the refs don't like me or I'm just unlucky,'' Heap said. "But I thought that one was a touchdown. I didn't see the replay, but that's what I thought when I came down with it. I really shouldn't put it in the ref's hands though. I need to hold onto that ball. That's my feeling.''

The Ravens wound up settling for a game-tying 25-yard field goal after Heap's touchdown was overruled, pulling Baltimore even at 3-3.

But Heap again found the replay spotlight in the third quarter, when he appeared to catch a 10-yard pass from Kyle Boller, run a couple steps and then fumble out of bounds as he was tackled by Denver safety Kenoy Kennedy. Officials immediately ruled the pass incomplete on the field and upheld their call after Baltimore challenged. The Ravens lost a timeout with the failed challenge.

The NFL's current replay system is in the third year of a three-year trial. While replay is expected to be implemented again in some fashion in 2004, few doubt there will be considerable discussion on how to improve the system at next March's annual league meeting.

A yes vote by 24 of the 32 teams is needed to maintain replay in some form, and there are five teams solidly opposed to all replay systems. If Baltimore joins that group next spring, the anti-replay faction would need just three more votes (or nine overall) to kill replay.

Against the Bengals last week, Billick was angered when replay seemed to show Ravens receiver Frank Sanders touching Bengals cornerback Tory James down after an interception. Referee Johnny Grier ruled that replays showed no conclusive evidence that James had been touched.

"I don't know that Johnny wasn't looking at pictures of his kids in that little booth,'' Billick said last week in Cincinnati. "I'm still an advocate of instant replay, but I've long been an advocate of taking it off the field. Let's take it upstairs. With the current system, I've got to expend a timeout, embarrass the officials and throw a red flag out on the field, let him go in and look at God knows what on the Internet and come out and tell me, 'I didn't get a definitive view to overrule it.'''