refs Page 6 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

How Bad Were Replacement Refs Last Night? Let's Examine The Video Evidence.
After the preseason teaser that is the Hall Of Fame Game, we got our first glimpse of the NFL's replacement referees during last night's slate of pro football action. The verdict? Just ask Bill Belichick, who despite an NFL ban on teams commenting on officiating suggested we seek the opinion of Mik...

Falcons-Ravens Replacement Ref (Who May Be Lingerie League Castoff) Keeps Insisting He's In Arizona
It's been quite a week for replacement referee Craig Ochoa. First, he headed up a crew that opened the NFL preseason at the Hall of Fame game, then dealt with a report that he was hired by the NFL after being fired by the Lingerie Football League....

The Replacement Ref Who Worked The Hall Of Fame Game May Have Been Dismissed From The Lingerie Football League
We at Deadspin cover a lot of ramshackle football leagues—the Arena, Indoor, and United States leagues come to mind—but none of them seems as ramshackle as the Lingerie Football League. This outfit has 12 teams playing seven-on-seven in small venues throughout this great land.* A handful of the game...

The NFL's Replacement Refs Had A Really Bad Game Last Night
The most zealous football fans will forgive you for not watching the Hall of Fame game last night. Pretty much anything else provides better entertainment. For example, I was watching lightning bolts through the clouds over the North Fork. You were probably watching tape-delayed sports on NBC or Bre...

Baseball Player Who Said He'd Never Live In Racist South Carolina Assigned To South Carolina Team
Outfielder Robert Refsnyder, who was born in South Korea, took some heckling from South Carolina fans at the College World Series last month when his Arizona Wildcats beat the Gamecocks. Refsnyder ran to Twitter and declared he "will never live in South Carolina because they can't accept Asians play...

Some Celtics Fans Will Be Wearing Tim Donaghy Masks Tonight
Celtics fans, including the world's most famous Celtics fan, truly believe that the NBA is rigged and/or biased for Miami and against Boston. To do their best to give David Stern an aneurism, there's a campaign to print out and wear masks of everyone's favorite crooked ref Tim Donaghy. This is the b...

Today It Was Florida State That Avoided An Upset Thanks To The Refs
Another day, another blown call that changed a game's outcome in Nashville as third-seeded Florida State escaped with a win over St. Bonaventure due to referees missing this violation (hint: when inbounding the ball you have to stay out of bounds) that would have handed the Bonnies the ball under ...

Syracuse Avoided Being The First 1 Seed To Lose To A 16, Thanks In Part To The Referees
While the much-debated late line violation was the correct call, there were a number of times UNC-Asheville found themselves playing eight-on-five during the top-seeded Syracuse Orange this afternoon. Here's a sampling of some of the blunders that kept this game from being the first-ever 16-over-...

Here's China Losing Its Olympic Men's Soccer Bid On A Blown Call (Which Was Followed By A Humiliating Collapse)
Regrettably, the Chinese men's soccer team will not have a chance to follow up its 2008 Olympics performance—six goals against, one goal for, two red cards, one vicious episode of crotch-punching—with an appearance in London in 2012. The People's Republic was eliminated from the Asian Olympic qual...

Does Rubbish Refereeing Ruin Soccer? Debating The Dumbest Red Card Ever
The Spoiler is never one to jump on a bandwagon, in fact, we still love Nick Clegg, we don't think the Kings of Leon have, like, totally sold out and some of our best friends are bankers....

T-Wolves Notch 5 Technicals In 10 Seconds
This video has everything: a power-mad ref (and hometown boy!), Manu sinking four straight free throws, and the emergence of Angry Darko....

Ref: The Steelers Probably Wouldn't Have Won Super Bowl XL Without Me
Remember when the Seattle Seahawks totally got jobbed out of a Super Bowl trophy? Referee Bill Leavy does. Here's what he said during a lil chat with the Seattle media yesterday:...

Sooth-Saying Wife: My Hubby, the World Cup Finals Ref, Can't Even Control Three Children
Howard Webb's dream of officiating a World Cup Finals match will come true tomorrow. But to hear his Missus tell it, dream could morph into nightmares of Coulibaly proportions for Espana or Holland. Sayeth Kay Webb of Rotherdam, U.K., "I don't know how he does it. He can't take charge of his own ch...

Today In Karma: Italian Player Viciously Flops, Game-Tying Goal Disallowed
The man writhing around on the ground as if he'd been splashed in the face with acid is Italy's Fabio Quagliarella. His theatrics led to Slovakian keeper Jan Mucha's yellow card. Thankfully, the universe doesn't stand for that shit....

Here's Video Of The U.S. Getting Jobbed By A Ref. Again.
This run by the U.S. in the 23rd minute resulted in yet another disallowed goal for the USMNT after Clint Dempsey's strike was called off on a questionable offsides call. Here's video proof that it was pretty much nonsense....

Fans Bring Greek Basketball Finals To A Violent, Pyrotechnic End (UPDATE)
In Game 4 of the Greek A-1 League finals between Olympiakos and Panathinaikos, referees declared Panathinaikos the winner after Olympiakos fans interrupted the game by shooting a flare at the Panathinaikos team and staff. Holy shitkos....

Lady Ref Breaks The Gender Barrier No One Cared About
Sarah Thomas made history by becoming the first woman to ref a bowl game. And she acquitted herself nicely. And she only burned the roast a little bit! [Detroit Free Press]...

The Learning Curve: The Replacement Refs
This segment is called "The Learning Curve" where you, young blog proprietor, will get a link to your new site on Deadspin. Any and all questions you may have about being a successful blogger will (hopefully) be answered....

When The Refs Have Guns, We All Win
You know what American sports need? They need to start arming the referees....

Will The Mob Kill Him First, Or Will David Stern?
We usually take front page New York Post stories with a grain of salt — unless they involve the she-male muscular type — but today's is a potentially huge one: An as-yet unnamed NBA ref may have been fixing games for the mob. Yeah. We'd call that a big story....