On Sunday the Los Angeles Rams defeated the New Orleans Saints in a thrilling overtime battle. But unfortunately, the Rams win will forever be linked to one of the worst no calls in all of sports history, one that may forever taint the Rams win. With 1:41 left to go, Rams cornerback Nickell Roby-Coleman committed an egregious pass interference call. Everyone who saw it live and on the replay new instantly that it was pass interference, and not just pass interference, but also targetting. After the game, Roby-Coleman himself said it was an intentional pass interference to stop a possible touchdown. The league and the head referee even admitted immediately the call was blown. The impact of the missed call was huge, as instead of a 1st and goal and the ability to essentially run the clock out and win the game, the Saints had to leave 1:30 left, which the Rams used to tie the game, sending it to overtime. The Rams eventually won the game, and credit them for playing it out and playing well. But that blown call robbed the Saints of a rightful NFC championship. Of course we can always say "no one play wins or loses a game" but to have the game taken out of the players hands and into the referees, that is a problem. Which brings us to today, and the current sports landscape. This blown call was just the latest saga in what has been a disastrous reffing campaign in the NFL this year. Constant rule changes aimed at protecting players (but only offensive players) have increased the amount of judgement calls and opportunities for blown calls in the NFL. The amount of extremely soft but game changing roughing the passer calls has been unprecedented, and we saw another soft one on the Chiefs to extend a Patriots drive late the 4th of their playoff game. In addition, pass interference calls, always extremely controversial and inconsistent anyways, have only seemed to have gotten worse over the years, not to mention the inconsistent catch or no catch game that is played every Sunday. Even rare penalties like a wild "in the grasp call" against Dak Prescott in the Cowboys divisional round games are getting their opportunity to be absolutely blown. And this doesn't apply just to the NFL. The NBA has seen their fair share of criticism as well. Two memorable plays from the NBA this year have been a egregious and ugly no call on a James Harden double step back travel, which is one of the sillier things I've seen in recent memory, and Kevin Durant clearly going out of bounds and passing to Stephen Curry to tie against the Rockets very late in the game. Durant would even go on to say he knew he was out of bounds, but "the refs are easy to fool."And MLB umping continues to reveal itself as a relic of the past with each missed strike and ball. Reffing is a serious problem in the sports world. But the question is what can be done? I understand reffing is extremely hard. Making judgement calls when top athletes are flying around, pushing the limits of the human body is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. And honestly, it is nigh impossible for a human to get right. But the thing is, we seem to accept that for little to no reason when more can be improved, in the name of possibly protecting the ref? But that doesn't make sense, because the more blown calls the more negative spotlight is put on these refs. When any play can be replayed ad nauseam and everyone in the stadium and watching at home can easily see a blown call, two things come to mind. First, and this applies to all sports, is that technology needs to be taking over the majority of reffing decisions, whenever and wherever possible. Soccer has taken the correct step in taking goal line calls outside of the refs hands, and using goal-line technology to settle fully whether the ball broke the line or not. This has been met with nearly universal acclaim, and whenever possible all sports need to be going to this. No one cares that the "human element" of referees making a goal-line judgement call has been removed. People care that the right call is made. Any reffing decision that can be made automatic through technology needs to be implemented. And any place where technology can be used, it needs to be used to its full extent. When a single replay can reveal a blown or mistaken call, it should be able to be used at any time. We have the benefit of ever advancing and powerful technology. Heck, the pylons for the Super Bowl will have 7 cameras in them, each. More and more we have the ability to take calls out of the refs hands, and get them right, and it is silly to not use them. The second thing that comes to mind, and it is related to the first point, is that all plays, especially in football that has a natural start stop start stop rhythm, needs to be review-able and challenge-able. The amount of games decided on plays "that cannot be reviewed or challenged" is more than 0, and that is way too many. Pass interference calls especially are one of the most game changing, and are some of the most easily review-able. For many of these calls (like the Saints-Rams one) it would take less than a minute to correct and get right, which makes the argument that "it would make the game too long" a foolish one. Staying on that topic, that argument that everything being review-able will extend games too much is silly on it's own for a few reasons. One, at max the game is delayed by 5-10 minutes. If a review takes anymore time than that, then it is most likely unable to be overturned on the basis that it is not clear and irrefutable evidence. And these games are already 3 hour affairs. Would anyone have turned the game off because that Roby-Coleman hit was reviewed? Official reviews can be some of the most tense moments. And none of that even comes close to taking away the benefit of getting calls right. Will a fan of the Saints fan be comforted that at least the game didn't take 1 minute longer because the blown call is reviewed? What is more important to fans, getting a fair game, or getting a game that is under 3 hours? There is little to no reason to have literally 100+ cameras and every replay angle possible and not use them and let extremely fallible humans decide games with no assistance and with very little oversight or accountability. When a fan sitting at home can clearly see a blown call on TV, why is the ref not getting that same view or opportunity? Refereeing is hard. But we can make it easier, and continue to refuse to do so for archaic, long outdated reasons. It is time for a change, and given the rightful outrage, it is most likely coming. We need to stop holding on to tradition here, and move forward into the future. We have the technology. It is just a shame that the Saints had to die for the leagues sins. Or perhaps it is fitting.