off Page 211 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Enjoy The NFL, Jared Goff
Jared Goff came to Cal as a skinny freshman who had to fight for the starting job against Zach Kline, one of the highest-ranked recruits who’s ever taken his talents to Berkeley. Goff won the job, but not much else, as the Golden Bears struggled to a 1-11 season in 2013, with the lone victory agains...

Report: Three Clemson Players Suspended From Orange Bowl For Failing Drug Tests
According to a report from Price Atkinson of ESPN Greenville and later confirmed by others, Clemson’s Deon Cain, Ammon Lakip, and Jay Jay McCullough are going to be suspended from the team’s College Football Playoff/Orange Bowl matchup with Oklahoma on Thursday for a violation of team rules. The Cle...

The Replay Booth Probably Did Not Assist Ed Hochuli On Late Facemask Call
For a moment during the third quarter of tonight’s Monday Night Football contest, it seemed that we had yet another refereeing controversy on our hands. As Broncos DE Malik Jackson sacked Bengals quarterback AJ McCarron, he grabbed McCarron’s facemask. But despite McCarron pleading for the call as h...
![Duke Wins Pinstripe Bowl After Would-Be Indiana FG Ruled No Good [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/xajbxiugr6lggryskrfp.gif)
Duke Wins Pinstripe Bowl After Would-Be Indiana FG Ruled No Good [UPDATE]
Indiana kicker Griffin Oakes’s overtime field goal went wide right, ruled officials, giving Duke its first bowl win since 1961 as the Blue Devils claimed the Pinstripe Bowl trophy at Yankee Stadium....

Pete Morelli's Season Has Been A Referee's Worst Nightmare
Everyone in the NFL likes Pete Morelli. The 19-year veteran is consistently one of the league’s highest-graded, most-respected officials. Last year he won the Art McNally award, the NFL’s highest honor for an official, for his career body of work. Yet Morelli and his crew are having the single worst...

Here's Your Ready-Made NFL Officiating Conspiracy Theory
In the wake of a string of very visible officiating blunders—and a perceived increase in the number of zebra screw-ups—the NFL this week announced a potentially big change to its postseason procedures, one that will expand the types of disputed calls on which officials will be allowed to consult the...

What Does This Headline Mean?
Sam Farmer wrote a column which started with the recent spate of injuries to playoff-bound NFL quarterbacks for Tuesday’s edition of the Los Angeles Times. The copy’s fine, but the headline has puzzled me and others on the Deadspin staff for a couple of days now....

The NFL Is Making Sure Officials Don't Fuck Up In The Playoffs
The NFL thrives because of gambling, and people gamble on the NFL because they believe it’s on the level. It’s a profitable little circle that gets disrupted when officials screw up, something that feels like it’s been happening with increasing frequency this year. The NFL does not want to run the r...


Bills Coaches Confront Officials, Call Them "A Disgrace To The NFL"
Some of the Bills didn’t have much to add after Sunday’s 23-20 loss the Eagles—like RB LeSean McCoy, who spent the week talking not-so-nice about his former coach, even reportedly hanging up on Chip Kelly when he called to chat. Following the final whistle, McCoy bolted from the field and dismissed ...

Report: NFL Forms Six-Member Committee To Fix The Catch Rule
This offseason the NFL will overhaul its Rube Goldberg Machine of a catch rule, hopefully into something mere mortals can understand. Maybe next season you’ll actually get to cheer when your favorite player makes an extraordinary catch, instead of waiting to react until the referees review the play ...

Referee Screams Profanity At James Neal After Whistling Him For Embellishment
Nashville Predators forward James Neal appeared to go down from little to no contact in the second period against the Bruins tonight, causing a referee to whistle for embellishment and then scream at him. “Fuck you, you’re getting a fucking embellishment” is what it sounds like on this end. To compl...

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Here Are Your College Football Playoff Matchups
ESPN just revealed the matchups for the second annual College Football Playoff. #1 Clemson will take on #4 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, and #2 Alabama has #3 Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl. Both games will be played on December 31, with the final on January 11 in Arizona. ...
![Blown Offside Call Robs UNC Of Chance To Force Overtime Against Clemson [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/Image_Not_Found_1x_qjofp8.png)
Blown Offside Call Robs UNC Of Chance To Force Overtime Against Clemson [UPDATE]
First things first: North Carolina’s chances of winning this game were very slim. They’d have a minute to go 50 yards, score a touchdown, and get the two-point conversion—and that would just be to tie. But that an officiating blunder stripped them of the opportunity for a stunning comeback is, given...

NFL's VP Of Officiating Defends Very Bad Year Of Officiating
One of the defining characteristics of this NFL season has been late-game officiating controversies. There was the tumultuous ending to the Patriots-Bills game, the weird anti-Cam Newton grandstanding by Ed Hochuli, the phantom offensive pass interference call that allowed the Broncos to give the Pa...

Today Was A Great Day For American Soccer Players In Europe
Right now is not a banner time for American soccer players in Europe. There are precious few starters for top-tier European clubs, and many American stars have repopulated MLS rather than try to hack it in the big leagues....

The Facemask Penalty On The Lions Was The Right Call In The Moment
This will sound self-contradictory and bring consolation to absolutely no one, but the facemask call that extended the game and gave the Packers the chance to win on a hail mary was the wrong call—and one that no official should be blamed for making....

<i>The Comedians </i>Is The Deep-Dive History Stand-Up Comedy Deserves
For close to a decade, Kliph Nesteroff, a former stand-up comic from Vancouver, has been exploring the underbelly of showbiz, and especially comedy, history, mainly for WFMU’s Beware of the Blog, the New Jersey freeform radio station’s online home for longform ephemera. Though the writing was clearl...

NFL Demotes Officiating Crew After Screwups In Cardinals-Niners Game
Sunday’s Cardinals-49ers game was a disaster for the officials, one that stood out even against the backdrop of an especially woeful season for the zebras. How bad was it? The crew responsible has been demoted from primetime....