Plenty of controversy in sports in 2019. Unfortunately for officials, they were under the spotlight numerous times for calls that were not made or were considered highly questionable. It’s a tough job but some folks have to do it.
The non-PI call that changed football
Officials are best off not seen and not heard. The calendar year 2019 opened with a play that resounds now and likely forever. With 1:49 left in the fourth quarter and the Saints at the Rams’ 13-yard line in the NFC Championship Game, Drew Brees threw a pass in Tommylee Lewis’ direction down the right sideline. Nickell Robey-Coleman came over and clobbered Lewis before the ball got there, clearly interfering with him. No flag. It was one of a few calls Bill Vinovich’s crew missed in the game …
No facemask called
On Jared Goff’s scramble in the fourth quarter, the officials missed a clear face-mask penalty. Two plays later, the Rams settled for a field goal instead of having first-and-goal from inside the 2.
Another facemask miss
On Brandin Cooks’ 36-yard touchdown, which set up Todd Gurley’s touchdown run, P.J. Williams grabbed a handful of the receiver’s face mask. It wasn’t called, and not that it would’ve impacted the game, but it should’ve been a penalty.
Bud Dupree-Russell Wilson
The play in question happened during the fourth quarter of Seattle’s 28-26 victory. Facing second-and-20, Wilson rolled to his right to evade T.J. Watt. His pass downfield to Tyler Lockett was incomplete. After Wilson threw the pass, Dupree lowered the crown of his helmet into Wilson’s facemask and laid him out. Officials somehow missed the penalty.
Refs take 15 seconds from Saints
In a regular-season matchup with the Rams, Drew Brees completed a 17-yard pass to Michael Thomas on third-and-17 to the New Orleans 30. The replay official called for a review of the first down ruling, stopping the clock. The play was upheld, but since it was a running clock, the stoppage required either a New Orleans timeout or a 10-second runoff by rule. The Saints elected not to use the timeout, leaving them with 14 seconds. The 10-second runoff was not properly applied. “Unless I am crazy, they really mishandled the replay,” FOX Sports’ Mike Periera wrote. “They should have reset the clock to 41 seconds and then run 10 seconds down to 31. That took 15 seconds away from the Saints.”
Early whistle Saints-Rams
Saints defensive end Trey Hendrickson forced a fumble by Rams quarterback Jared Goff. Cam Jordan grabbed the loose ball and took the distance across the field for a score. One of the officials mistook the play for an incomplete pass, however, and signaled that the play was dead early in the return, taking points off the scoreboard for New Orleans.
Miles Sanders against Lions
Miles Sanders was returning a Detroit kickoff when Miles Killebrew tackled him from the side and nearly unscrewed the RB’s head from his neck. A clear facemask penalty. And no flag was thrown. Killebrew eventually was fined 10K.
Cowboys trip over Pats
The Patriots defeated the Cowboys 13-9 in New England and there was controversy over a tripping penalty on Travis Frederick. The penalty negated a first-down pass to Ezekiel Elliott on third-and-1 in the final two minutes of the game and resulted in the Cowboys facing an eventual fourth-and-11. It was one of two tripping penalties on Cowboys offensive linemen, with another being called on Tyron Smith.
Packers-Lions Monday Night Fiasco
More flags stirred the hornets’ nest, or in this case the Lions’ den. The first came with 10:16 left in the fourth quarter, and with the Lions leading by nine points. Kevin Strong sacked Aaron Rodgers on a third-and-10. A late flag came in from umpire Jeff Rice, who said DE Trey Flowers committed an illegal hands to the face penalty against LT David Bakhtiari.
Then came a play where the flag was not thrown on the Lions’ subsequent possession. Contact between Will Redmond and Marvin Jones was not ruled to be a case of defensive pass interference.
(GIF from NFL.com/GamePass)
Instead of a first down for the Lions at Green Bay’s 22-yard line, they threw an incomplete pass and then punted.
Flowers’ second penalty came inside the two-minute warning, when the Lions’ defense made the stop needed to hold Green Bay to a field goal. However, the call left the ball with the Packers and the Lions fuming.
Chiefs-Patriots, roughing not roughing
The Chiefs and Patriots were in a tight playoff game. Tom Brady’s incompletion appeared to force the Pats into a third-down situation. However, roughing the passer was called on Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones, giving the Patriots a critical first down.
Stanley Cup snafu, I
Up 3-0 with a little more than half of the third period left in Game 7, Vegas was seemingly on its way to a Round 1 victory over San Jose. Off a faceoff in Vegas’ end, Cody Eakin got tied up with Joe Pavelski, who ended up falling so awkwardly that he was left bloody and had to be helped off the ice. Eakin was given a five-minute major for cross-checking. By the time Eakin had left the box, San Jose scored four goals and was up 4-3 with five minutes left. With the goalie pulled, Vegas tied it on a Jonathan Marchessault goal that forced overtime, but San Jose’s Barclay Goodrow scored to end the series.
Stanley Cup playoffs snafu, II
The Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks were in a tight playoff series. Trailing 2-1 with about 12 minutes left in the second period, the Avalanche started on a 2-on-1 with Nathan MacKinnon and Colin Wilson, who seemingly scored to tie the game. The Sharks challenged the call for offside, specifically because it appeared Gabriel Landeskog may not have tagged up outside the offensive zone as he was heading to the bench for a change. It was hard to find anything conclusive in the replays, but the NHL waved off the goal.
Stanley Cup snafu, III
The Sharks got the game-winner in overtime but it didn’t come without plenty of controversy. Timo Meier appeared to commit an obvious hand pass before Gustav Nyquist was able to set up Erik Karlsson for the winning goal, but officials didn’t whistle the play dead like they should have and they counted the goal. The hand pass rule is apparently not review-able, meaning the Blues had to swallow a brutal missed call and fall down 2-1 in the series.
Bruins-Blues Game IV (CAM NEELY)
With the Blues up 1-0, St. Louis got an insurance goal about halfway through the third period after a blatant missed call. As Noel Acciari got the puck near the boards in his own end, Tyler Bozak hit him skate-on-skate and tripped up the Bruins forward. The miss was on Bozak, who should have gone to the box for two minutes. Instead, Acciari was out of the play and the Blues scored seconds later to take a 2-0 lead. Bruins exec Cam Neely blew a gasket.
Stanley Cup playoffs, V
The Bruins led 2-0 in the first half of the first period of Game 4 and seemed to be in full control. But Artemi Panarin got Columbus on the board just a minute-and-a-half after the Bruins’ second goal. However, before Panarin put it in, the puck hit the netting behind the goal, so the play should have been blown dead.
The colossal World Series controversy
With the Nationals clinging to a 3-2 lead and Yan Gomes on base, Washington’s Trea Turner hit a ball toward third base and appeared to beat a throw to first base by Astros pitcher Brad Peacock. Turner arrived at first base just as the throw did and collided with the glove of Houston first baseman Yuli Gurriel as the ball rolled away. Turner advanced to second, and Gomes to third with no outs. Turner was then called out for interfering with the throw, setting off heated debates.
The Nationals protested the call, and following a five-minute review the ruling stood. It was later explained that the interference call is not reviewable because it is a judgment call, and that the umpires were contacting the Major League offices during the delay to relay that the Nationals had lodged a protest to the game. In-between innings, Nationals manager Dave Martinez was ejected after a fierce argument.
Cal-Ole Miss final seconds
Elijah Moore wound up in controversy twice. It appeared the Ole Miss wideout caught a touchdown pass from in the final seconds of the Rebels 28-20 loss to Cal, but he was ruled down short of the goal line. The replay officials didn’t stop the game to review the play.
This was the same Elijah Moore who wound up the center of a storm after scoring a late TD in the Egg Bowl.
Texas Tech-Baylor
A series of questionable calls in the Big 12 game between Baylor and Texas Tech. First, on Texas Tech’s go-ahead scoring drive in the fourth quarter. Jett Duffey threw an incomplete pass far out of bounds while being pressured in the end zone. No grounding call as refs ruled SaRodorick Thompson was in the area. Another issue occurred when Baylor center Jake Fruhmorgen snapped the ball off his leg and Jordyn Brooks pounced on it, yelling for it to be called a fumble. The referees declared it was an illegal snap, which FOX’s rules expert Dean Blandino disputed on the broadcast. Instead the play resulted in a five-yard penalty and Charlie Brewer threw a 32-yard pass to Mims. Baylor tried hurrying to the line and appeared to score on a QB sneak, but the refs called the play dead in order to review if Mims actually stepped out of bounds or scored a touchdown. He had clearly stepped out.
Penn State-Iowa
Penn State held a 7-6 lead at the time when a bizarre sequence of plays and penalties occurred. Running back Journey Brown’s 6-yard TD run was disallowed because of holding. Then Sean Clifford threw a 16-yard TD to Pat Freiermuth — but it was reversed and ruled a yard short. Brown rushed for no gain, then another holding call moved Penn State back again, and then Clifford sprinted in for an 11-yard TD — before that was also called back for holding. An online petition started to fire one of the officials involved, John O’Neill, has more than 18,000 signatures. O’Neill was assigned to games that saw two other infamous calls in recent Penn State history.
Warriors-Wolves
With Golden State trailing by three and 5.8 seconds remaining in overtime, Kevin Durant received the inbounds pass and went up for a long 3-pointer. The ball went in as the whistle sounded, leading everyone to think Durant had a chance to give the Warriors the lead with a four-point play. But the refs ruled that the foul occurred before the shot. No basket, ball out of bounds to the Warriors. Later, with 0.5 seconds remaining, the Wolves attempted a lob pass to Karl-Anthony Towns that sailed about a mile over his head out of bounds, seemingly ending the first overtime. However, the referee whistled that Durant had pushed Towns in the back while he was attempting to catch the pass, giving Towns two free throws. He stepped up to the line and made the first, then missed the second on purpose to give the Wolves the one-point victory.
Warriors-Raptors issue
The NBA says Marc Gasol should have been given two free throws when Golden State Warriors player DeMarcus Cousins committed a shooting foul with 49 seconds left in the final quarter of Game 5. As Gasol drove in for a layup, Cousins made contact with Gasol and caused the Raptor to miss his shot and tumble to the floor. The Last Two-Minute Report, conceded the foul was an incorrect non-call.
Purdue-Tennessee
In a Sweet 16 matchup between Tennessee and Purdue, a foul occurred late in regulation while Carsen Edwards attempted a 3-point shot that would have given the Boilermakers an 83-82 win. He missed the shot, but Lamonte Turner was called for the foul for hip-checking Edward’s outstretched leg in the air. Edwards hit two of his foul shots to knot it up at 82, sending the game to overtime. Purdue eventually won 99-94.
Final Four flub
Virginia advanced past Auburn in a national semifinal when Kyle Guy made three free throws with 0.6 seconds left, after a controversial sequence sent him to the line, and Virginia beat Auburn 63-62 in the Final Four. Auburn led 61-60 after Guy made an off-balance 3 with 7.6 seconds left. The Tigers’ Jarred Harper then made a foul shot and Auburn had fouls to give and did so twice. On one of them, it looked as if Virginia’s Ty Jerome double-dribbled into a decisive turnover. Jerome also might have been fouled before the mishandle. But there was no whistle for either, setting the stage for Guy.
Wimbledon final
Perhaps the worst call of the year was actually a decision. The powers that be at Wimbledon decided they had seen enough fifth sets go on and on and on… So, they decided to install a tiebreak when the score reached 12–12 in the final set of any match. Of course, it played little role in the tournament until the men’s final when, instead of playing on, Novak Djokovic won the crown over Roger Federer in a tiebreak.
