If You Pick Up A Flag, You Need A Better Explanation Than That

Let's get this caveat out of the way, and (in spirit) amend it to all future discussions of the picked-up pass-interference flag that appeared so crucial in the Lions' loss to the Cowboys: the no-call didn't cost Detroit the game. Failing to hold a lead cost Detroit the game, as did turning the ball over three times,… »1/05/15 9:23am1/05/15 9:23am

Why Officials Picked Up The Flag And Gave Carolina The Win

The non-call that ended the Panthers' win over the Patriots was a bad call. Not a historically terrible one, in a vacuum: worse missed penalties and more egregious undeserved flags happen every week in the NFL. But on the last play of the game, a supremely entertaining slugfest between two Super Bowl contenders,… »11/19/13 9:38am11/19/13 9:38am


After a loss to the Ravens in which Caleb Sturgis missed a last-second 57-yard field goal that would have tied the game, the Dolphins noticed that Baltimore pulled the same maneuver the Patriots got busted for yesterday. Miami sent video of the play to the league and the league reportedly admitted that the call should… »10/22/13 12:17am10/22/13 12:17am


Hockey's never been much for the sanctity of seeds. No one blinked last year when the eight-seeded Kings blew through the competition on the way to a Cup. So it's not any sort of mathematical upset that the Red Wings took a 2-1 lead in their series with the top-seeded Blackhawks last night—but they needed one very… »5/21/13 9:20am5/21/13 9:20am


Jerome Boger will referee the Super Bowl. Jerome Boger probably doesn't deserve to referee the Super Bowl. Football Zebras, a site devoted solely to NFL officiating, reported on Jan. 20 that Boger's unspectacular in-season grades for his refereeing had been mysteriously changed after the fact to make him more… »1/29/13 3:05pm1/29/13 3:05pm





The Same Ref Who Worked The Seahawks-Steelers Super Bowl Will Work This Week's Seahawks-Steelers Game

They're still not over Super Bowl XL in Seattle, especially after referee Bill Leavy admitted last year he had "kicked" a couple of calls in the fourth quarter. That Leavy was assigned to work Sunday's game will at least take the city's focus off the state of the current Seahawks for a while. [PFT, via Seattle Times]… »9/13/11 3:20pm9/13/11 3:20pm


Have some money to invest, but you're not totally sold on the financial genius that is Lenny Dykstra? Why not try Shawn Hochuli, son of embattled NFL referee iron pumper Ed Hochuli? Shawn is a football referee as well, in addition to being a young Gordon Gekko. Hochuli refs in the Big 12, working games from Iowa to… »11/25/08 11:45am11/25/08 11:45am