It’s not often that Ravens and Patriots fans find themselves aligned.
But the head coaches for the respective teams are on the same page when it comes to an issue that hurt the Ravens over the weekend. Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick has said for years that the league should implement cameras at the goal line to aid in instant replay, and Harbaugh agrees.
The topic was brought up after Baltimore’s game against Cleveland, where the officials ruled that Browns receiver Corey Coleman was in bounds on the game’s first touchdown. They reviewed the catch, but didn’t have any clear video evidence to overturn it. A photo taken from field level showed that Coleman’s foot was out of bounds, which would have taken the touchdown off the board.
If the NFL had additional video cameras along the back of the end zone, that could have given the officials a much better angle to make the call.
“Coach Belichick has been a champion of [adding end-zone cameras], and I support fully what he says, out of fairness,” Harbaugh said. “There should be the same number of cameras at every game, and if the network doesn’t have them, the NFL should put them in there.”
Harbaugh and Belichick have often agreed with each other when it comes to issues of instant replay. Belichick has advocated for all plays to be reviewable, and Harbaugh also made a strong case for the expansion of instant replay at last year’s owners meetings.
The Patriots made an official rules proposal for the league to add end-zone cameras two years ago, and Belichick reportedly made an impassioned speech at the owners meetings that the league should pay for the equipment if the television networks don’t provide it.
The proposal was denied, and now the number of television cameras at a game varies depending on which broadcast team is producing the game.
“[Coach Belichick] says it way more flamboyantly than I do – he had some great lines that we all laughed about – but I’m siding up with coach Belichick on that one,” Harbaugh said. “That would be the right thing to do. Every game is just as important to the teams that are playing in the game.”
