Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 11/27/08
The National Lacrosse League has announced the addition of instant replay to assist game officials in reviewing certain types of calls during games for the 2009 season.
Instant replay use by officials will be limited to review of goals and crease violations only. A team’s head coach will have the opportunity to initiate an instant replay review by challenging a call made on the floor.
Each head coach will be permitted to do so twice per game, once during each half of the contest. If a challenge is unsuccessful, the team requesting the challenge will be charged with a timeout.
The head coach will request the challenge by throwing a yellow flag onto the playing surface. During the final two minutes of the fourth quarter and throughout an overtime period, only the game officials can initiate an instant replay review.
“Our game moves very fast, and we wanted to give our game officials every available resource in determining calls in these situations,” said NLL Commissioner Jim Jennings. “The other major professional sports leagues have benefited from the use of instant replay, and we look forward to the same effect in our game.”
Game officials will review plays on a video monitor positioned in the penalty box area, using in-arena and television video feeds to determine if a call will be upheld or overturned.
The instant replay system will be in place for the beginning of the upcoming season on December 27.
