EDITORIAL : SNAPS, TACKLES AND VIDEOTAPES; BRING BACK INSTANT REPLAY: PRO FOOTBALL IS TOO IMPORTANT TO LEAVE CRITICAL DECISIONS TO HUMANS.

Not all life is lived on the gridiron on Sundays in autumn; it just seems that way with America's love affair with professional football.

That's why in a world so filled with the ambiguous, amoral and arbitrary, the new national pastime ought at least to represent something clear and simple, where right is right and wrong is wrong.

Take it from us after viewing endless replays: Vinny Testaverde did not cross the goal line in the final seconds to score the winning touchdown for the New York Jets on Sunday. He came up inches short. But the refs blew the call.

Nor did Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis call heads at the overtime coin flip. He called tails, and the entire national TV audience watching at home on Thanksgiving heard it. The coin landed tails up, but the ref said he heard someone call heads. Read our lips: The ref was deaf. The Detroit Lions ``won'' the toss, took the ball and scored on their first possession of the sudden-death overtime.

While National Football League officials have decided the outcomes of several games in recent weeks with one bad call after another, the problem has persisted all season.

Thanks to instant replay, the whole country knows that. So why doesn't the NFL join the modern world and use technology to resolve close calls so the rightful winners actually win the games?

You'd have to ask an NFL owner (if L.A. had one), because videotape backup was used from 1986 until '91, until the owners benched it.

Given the fiasco this season has turned into, the owners ought to review their decision and reinstate instant replay faster than they can cash their shares of the $500 million-plus fee for a new franchise.

The NFL is an American institution that stands for something clean and simple in a confusing world. There's nothing that matters but winning and losing.

But terrible officiating in the past two weeks has muddled the game and cost the league some credibility. Losers are winning and winners are losing because the officials don't even know where the goal line is or whether heads or tails is called on coin flips.

Give us a break. Restore truth in officiating to the NFL - instantly. Before we change channels.