It would be hard to overstate just how badly the Cavs were screwed by the universe at the end of Game 1 Thursday night. A rare reversed judgment call, an unexpected missed free throw, an uncalled lane violation, an apparent uncalled loose-ball foul, and an all-time blunder by one of their own, all inside the final…

The NBA announced Friday that Tristan Thompson has been fined $25,000 for cramming a basketball in the face of Draymond Green during the dismal final moments of Game 1. Thompson was issued a Flagrant 2 and ejected by referee Tony Brothers—who, along with his fellow Game 1 referees, will never again in his life receive…

Controversy struck at the U-17 Euros today as Irish keeper James Corcoran earned his second yellow card of the match during the penalty shootout of a match that finished full time tied 1-1, leading to the Netherlands to claim the win.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported Saturday night on a meeting held between representatives of the NBA players’ union and members of the referees’ union, to discuss the ongoing and escalating hostility between the two groups this season.

NFL referee Jeff Triplette, famous for blinding Orlando Brown and bungling a 2013 replay review badly enough to trigger changes to the NFL’s replay system, was part of the officiating crew for Saturday’s AFC Wild Card game, a sloppily officiated game that drew harsh criticism from former officiating head Mike Pereira.…

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 years before the…

The latest edition of What Will it Take for Cam Newton to Draw a Flag? aired on Monday night, when a scrambling Newton slid—maybe late—and got hit helmet-to-helmet—maybe glancing—by Washington LB Trent Murphy. There was a flag thrown on a play: a taunting call on Newton for flipping the football at Murphy. Yesterday,…

Former NFL head of officiating Mike Pereira has been fairly outspoken with his criticism of refereeing since leaving the league in 2010. Now, he has a new specific criticism—that referees are breaking NFL rules by communicating directly with replay officials during games.

Odell Beckham Jr. is still steamed about the officiating in the Giants’ loss to the Steelers, in which he believes (and is correct, incidentally) that Pittsburgh defenders got away with all kinds of uncalled penalties. So steamed that he’s making nonsensical jokes:

The Texans’ 27-20 loss to the Raiders might have looked very different had a call or two gone Houston’s way, and a visibly pissed Bill O’Brien had to hold his tongue after the game to avoid getting fined.

After he took a hit to his knee that wasn’t flagged on Sunday, Cam Newton went off on the NFL. “At times I don’t even feel safe,” Newton, the reigning league MVP, said at the start of an extended rant about calls he frequently doesn’t get. “And enough is enough.”

Draymond Green was the loudest, brashest, most dick kicking-est player on the NBA Finals-losing Golden State Warriors, and he has already secured a legacy of sorts for himself: starting next season, NBA referees will be making a point to spot and penalize strikes to the dick and balls, or what the Associated Press…

I want to make a revelation that I truly believe—and have believed for a long time:

There really is no way to describe Pete Morelli’s 2015 season other than as a nightmare. Blown calls—lots of them, and in very visible situations—led to the Morelli crew unsurprisingly being left out of the postseason, and now the league has come down with its strongest censure short of termination: it’s reassigned…

Did Russell Westbrook travel in the waning seconds of last night’s Thunder Game 1 win? Yeah, totally. Does that ever get called, let alone late in a playoff game? Ehhh.

For pure entertainment value, Islanders-Panthers was the best series of the first round, with every game being close and half of them going to overtime. It ended in spectacular fashion, with John Tavares (who had five goals and four assists in six games) tying the game in the last minute of regulation and winning it…

Nobody could make himself part of the game like Joey Crawford. Inevitably, he’ll ref a few games per year where tension builds between teams and rather than let it progress to a boiling point, Crawford will instead make himself the protagonist and overreact, usually with an extra technical or ejection to calm things…

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.