Terry Bradshaw laments NFL’s reliance on technology: ‘What made it great was collisions and pass interference’

Technology makes a lot of things better, but it doesn’t make everything better. And Terry Bradshaw insists the NFL is one of those things that was better without technology.

Bradshaw joined last week’s edition of Real Time with Bill Maher to discuss life after football and preview the current NFL season. While comparing NFL eras, Maher noted Bradshaw may have had some completions that instant replay would have negated, which set the 78-year-old former quarterback on a path of ripping the NFL’s reliance on technology.

Is technology making football better?

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“Now we have high-def, we have 20 tape machines, 30 cameras, we’ll slow it down. We’re even under the ball where they fall down, and we got it in sloooow motion, ‘Oh my God, that looks like his jersey moved!’ And they go, ‘FLAG!’ What made the game great?” Bradshaw asked. “It wasn’t the fact that we have a perfect game, which is what they’re trying to get. What made it great was collisions and pass interference and bad calls and the fans being mad!”

Try telling that to the New Orleans Saints, who infamously missed out on a chance at going to the Super Bowl because of a missed pass interference call in the 2018 NFL Championship Game. And you can certainly make an argument that some aspects of technology teeter on the edge of making the NFL viewing experience worse, but calling out high-definition ain’t it. As cameras keep improving, it’s hard to remember a time when we watched a full Sunday of football without high definition.

The NFL ultimately wants to modernize officiating, get calls right, and improve the fan experience. And technology has helped in those areas. But this isn’t just an old man yelling at clouds or a retired player clinging to an era that was better than today’s game. Bradshaw is right that many fans lament long breaks when officials scrutinize every camera angle to decide whether a piece of the football touched a certain blade of grass. But the good of technology still outweighs the bad in the NFL.

Maybe we’ll get to a point where technology is starting to infringe on what makes the NFL great, but we’re not there yet.