Jamie SquireWe live in the age of rules. Sports fans understand way too much about the minutiae of the games that were once enjoyed on their own merits without obsessive checking and re-checking of every critical play, all made possible by the omnipresence of extremely powerful cameras that seem to cover every square inch of action. Was it a catch? Block or charge? Did the leg beat the tag? Did Tiger drop in the correct place, or was the eagle-eyed dude watching at home right when he actually phoned CBS?
Like everything that technology has wrought in this world, it's both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it definitely results in more correct calls being made, so on balance you can argue that the games are “fairer.” On the other, replays take forever, they absolutely kill end-of-game drama, and they shift focus from the skill of the athletes to the byzantine language and bylaws and corollaries of some dense rule book that nobody except an official should ever spend one minute o..
