officials Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The NFL Isn't Quite Sure How To Fix Pass Interference
The NFL acknowledges that pass interference is kind of a mess. Not only is it perhaps the most subjective of judgment calls officials are asked to make, but the very nature of it—often with more than five or 10 or even 15 yards in the balance—means it has the potential to swing games more than any o...
You're Not Supposed To Be Allowed To Do This
It’s not that points matter any more as the weather turns warmer—they count just as much in November as they do in March—but this is the part of the season where every blown, salvaged, earned, or gifted point comes with the attached hyperawareness. The Dallas Stars are in the thick of it, two points...
Paul George Believes The Thunder "Haven’t Gotten A Fair Whistle All Year"<em></em>
The Thunder accomplished a rare feat in their 118-110 loss to the Clippers on Friday that they probably won’t think fondly of when the season finally ends for them. For the second time in the past 10 seasons, three starters fouled out before the end of regulation: Paul George, Russell Westbrook and ...
NBA Officiating Sucks, But Not For The Reason Chris Paul Thinks It Does
The Houston Rockets think veteran referee Scott Foster is being mean to them, which is not new. Lots of teams have thought that about Foster over the years, (a) because he is under-burdened by the onus of player relations skills, and (b) because he isn’t easily bullied. Many teams would love to be a...
Who Cares If Buddy Hield Double-Dribbled On This Incredible Buzzer-Beater?
Despite playing like total ass for almost the entirety of the evening, the Kings recovered from an 11-point deficit with 6:21 left in the fourth quarter to only be down one point against the Pistons on Saturday. With 3.4 seconds left in the game, Sacramento guard Bogdan Bogdanovic inbounded the ball...
NBA Officials Ruined Two Great Posters With Two Soft Techs
Jaylen Brown and Lauri Markkanen each had an incredible posterizing dunk in their games on Friday night. Each player looked at their respective victims and gave a slight flex in victory over their athletic accomplishment. Shortly after, each player was assessed a technical foul for their “unsportsma...
Officials At Army-Navy Needed 8 Minutes To Review A 2-Yard Run
The Army Black Knights held a 10-0 lead against their bitter rivals, the Navy Midshipmen, heading into the fourth quarter of the 119th game between the two academies. Faced with a fourth-and-two situation, and having used the break between quarters to mull things over, Army coach Jeff Monken elected...
Lawsuit Accuses Bad Football Dad Of Dressing Like Referee At Son's Playoff Game And Bragging Online About Influencing The Outcome
We’ve got controversy in the Illinois High School Association Class 7A football playoffs, folks. Two controversies, in fact. One is a fairly mundane case of disorganization in high school football. The other involves costuming and bad parenting and a lawsuit, and a father boasting on social media ab...
The NFL Actually Fired An Official
Outside of the confusion about roughing-the-passer calls (which falls as much on the diktat from New York as on those tasked with enforcing it), it feels like NFL officiating has generally been pretty good this year—that is to say, it’s been largely unnoticeable. Which made this blatantly missed fal...
Report: Untrained Pac-12 Exec Was Allowed To Reverse Controversial Targeting Penalty
According to internal documents obtained by Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel, a Pac-12 executive who is not a trained official put his thumb on the scale and personally overruled what should have been a targeting penalty. On the final play of the third quarter of Washington State’s Sep. 21 loss to USC, WSU...
Maybe Now We Can Finally Calm Down About The NFL Helmet Rule
True story: The NFL might have come up with a sensible fix for its much-maligned helmet rule, just in time for the start of the regular season....
NHL Linesman Can't Stop Getting Gruesomely Injured
Capitals winger Andre Burakovsky suffered an “upper-body injury” on a big check in Sunday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Blue Jackets, and will not travel to Columbus for the series’ next two games. He got off easy compared to linesman Steve Barton....
NFL Ref Carl Johnson's Domestic-Violence Accuser Has Now Been Charged
In September, TMZ reported that Carl Johnson, an NFL line judge and the league’s former top ref, was under investigation for domestic violence in Louisiana. Johnson had been the NFL’s VP of officiating from 2010 to 2012, and since then had returned to the field. The investigation was due to a reques...
Ted Valentine Hasn't Worked A Game Since Turning His Back On Joel Berry
Last Wednesday, in North Carolina’s game against Florida State, Joel Berry tried to argue with official Ted Valentine about a non-foul call after he was held while trying to catch a pass. It didn’t go well, which is to say that it didn’t happen at all. Valentine just turned his back on the Tar Heels...
NFL Official Eats It; Bucs Lose
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost 24-21 to the Atlanta Falcons tonight when Patrick Murray missed a possible game-tying 54-yard field goal as time expired. The Bucs spiked the ball on the play before to stop the clock with six seconds left, but they would’ve had a few more had the official bringing the ...
$13 Billion Industry Uses Folded-Up Piece Of Paper To Determine Outcomes
The Cowboys earned a first down tonight in a play so ridiculous it made the Steelers’ loss look positively pedestrian. The NFL uses computer chips in uniforms, pads, and the football itself—but the decision to award first downs still comes down to a technology so analogue it existed two hundred year...
Late Clock Error Absolutely Hoses The Wizards In Los Angeles
The John Wall-less Washington Wizards took on the Blake Griffin- and Patrick Beverley-less Clippers in Los Angeles today, in a game that managed to be pretty fun even with roughly a quarter of its normal star wattage. The Clippers dominated the first half, but Bradley Beal came alive in the second h...
John Fox Challenge Turns Bears First-And-Goal Into Turnover
Another frustrating NFL rule is starting to assert itself. After the Jets got screwed out of a touchdown last month, the “fumble at the pylon” ruling reared its head again on a run from the Bears’ Benny Cunningham....
Raiders Win In Wild Finish That Everybody Screwed Up
Oakland topped Kansas City tonight in yet another improbably entertaining Thursday night game, though one that had a finish marred (to some) or spiced up (to others) by errors committed by, in order, the officials, the Raiders, the Chiefs, and the Chiefs again:...
The Packers Got Hosed But Also Trounced
The Green Bay Packers’ chances of spoiling the Falcons’ first game in their gaudy new butthole stadium crumbled to dust on two plays on either side of halftime. ...