Instant replay, please!

It is the hand that is talked about world-wide; it is the hand that receives the most coverage since Diego Maradona’s infamous “hand of god.” Yes, Thierry Henry’s handball that directly put France into the World Cup tournament in South Africa is what I want to talk about today, and I have only one take on this topic: introduce instant replay to soccer, and any other sport where a poor judgment call can be so costly.

For those of you who do not follow soccer/football, here’s what happened: in a winner-take-all match between the Republic of Ireland and France, where the winner is qualified to be one of the 32 teams to compete for the World Cup, and the loser is sent home, French star Thierry Henry went off-side and used his hand to move the ball to his right feet, allowing him to pass the ball to teammate William Gallas, who scored the winning goal in extra time. The result? France is going to the World Cup; Ireland is going home.

Back to the issue of instant replay. The “strongest” opposing takes against instant replay fall into one of two sorry categories: one, it will slow the flow of the game down; two, it is against the tradition/culture of the game. Both arguments cannot be more unacceptable, and here's why:

Soccer/Football is already a "slow" sport to begin with, in the sense that it contains a lot of plotting and build-up before the rare goals. In moments where a major dispute occurs, pausing the game for two minutes to make the right call is not any more "wasteful" than watching a player act as if he was shot by bullets, rolling all over the pitch until the referee pulls out a yellow card against another player whose leg did not even touch that rolling player. Is soccer/football fans can bear watching that nonsense happening frequently on the pitch, then waiting two minutes for the referees to make the right call certainly would not be unbearable.

As for the "traditions" of the game. Traditionally, surgeons don't use any anti-septic to clean their surgical instruments, and there were no anesthetics to put one out, does that mean that such old practice should remain in the medical field? Even bringing the talk back to the soccer/football pitch, they did not have the sleek shoes, the aero-dynamic shirts back in the day, so why are companies spending big bucks trying to develop gear that would improve performance by a fraction of a percent?

Fact is, the technology is here, and it can make the game's results that much more convincing. If FIFA truly cares about the development of this "world's sport," it should introduce instant replay before the World Cup. Allow each time to have a maximum number of challenges similar to tennis and American football, but the right call needs to be made, no matter what the sport is, and that's the bottom line.

The Andre Agassi Saga

There may not be a lot of tennis fans out there, but as a long-time tennis fan (and a little bit of a player myself), the recent revelations that retired tennis star Andre Agassi were still big to me.

For those of you who have not followed tennis/sports news, the former tennis great revealed in a book that he had always hated tennis, and was only forced to play by a verbally demanding (or abusive) father. Agassi also told the world that the very famous hair that he had in his early days turned out to be fake. But the most shocking revelation he gave was that he had used crystal meth during his playing time, and lied to the ATP (the professional organization for men’s tennis) about a failed drug test…

Andre Agassi had always been a tennis player that I liked. When he first came out and was rocking that crazy mane, and when he was playing in torn-up jeans, I marveled at his rebellious image (I was young then too). When he showed up, for the first time, at Wimbledon in his all-white tennis attire, I was rooting for him. Later on in his career, he became a standard for determination on the court. Though he was never my favourite tennis player, he was always a player that I liked, and I liked him a lot.

Did these revelations change the way I look at Agassi? Not a whole lot. I have long come to the realization that we really do not know these people – athletes, movie stars, public figures… many of them have a dark side to them, and though I do not condone that dark side, it is no different than a friend who is struggling with substance abuse issues, or a person I work with who is fighting a losing battle against some personal demons. Yes, Agassi is an athlete, and a very famous one at that. He has, like it or not, become a role model for many. If you have been reading from me long enough, you would know that I have always given praise to individuals, but I have long stopped worshipping them or expecting them to be, holistically, a role model (many of them still have attributes we can learn from and model from).

This, however, does not mean Agassi is spared from my criticism. The drug use, the lies he told the ATP aside, I do question his motives behind this. Many have argued that he is not doing this for the money (he was paid five million dollars up front to write this book) but is instead using this in as an emotional therapy to his past demons. While I do not deny the therapeutic side to his actions, I would also question why these revelations were not given without a return, or why they were not revealed while he was still on tour, but instead came after he had retired, and after he has been fading from the limelight. So these revelations are helping himself emotionally… but while he’s at it, he may as well get paid really, really well to do that.

Just another star that has fallen. If anyone is still idol-worshipping after one of these celebrities, you are naïve behind belief…