The Kentucky Derby has been around for 145 years. It's steeped in tradition. Mint juleps, fancy hats, tons of celebrity appearances and so on. This past weekend, the officials made a change of outcome for the first time in that 145 year history. They rewarded Country House, the second place finisher and 65-1 long shot, as the winner instead of Maximum Security. Maximum Security was the actual winner of the race, but was disqualified after a twenty-two minute investigation into claims filed by two jockey's whose claims of interference were looked into.Now, neither horse is running in The Preakness.
The Saints were poised to make another Super Bowl appearance. They had the Rams dead to rights. It was a third and long inside field goal range of a tied game with about less than two minutes left. Getting a first down would allow them to run out the clock and kick the potential game winning field goal with no time left on the clock. However, Bill Vinovich had other plans. TommyLee Lewis was open on a wheel route when Nickell Robey-Coleman decided to destroy him before the ball got there. Vinovich swallowed his whistle and the rest is history.
The Rockets dropped game one to the Warriors by a score of 104-100. A four point loss on the road in game one of the Western Conference semis is not a death sentence, but it could have swung momentum in the Rockets' favor to start the series. There were about four to five times in which a defensive foul could have been called when James Harden was shooting a three pointer giving the Rockets a chance another twelve to fifteen free throws could've made enough of a difference change the outcome of the game.
Oklahoma State lost to Central Michigan in 2016 on a Hail Mary on an untimed down. This was the result of a pass interference call that was improperly enforced. In 1990, Colorado beat Missouri in the infamous "Fifth Down Game" which is so infamous, it has its own page on Wikipedia.
Officials have been piss poor for a long time. Unfortunately, they're getting worse. We live in an age in which technology has made some improvements in our lives. When it comes to sports, instant replay has allowed for bad or missed calls to be reversed. The ability of teams to be able to challenge a bad call has been huge. Imagine if Armando Gallaraga could've challenged Jim Joyce's call of safe allowing him to preserve his perfect game bid?
Officials rarely have to face the music like players and coaches do. They often times make themselves apart of the outcome and garner the spotlight, but don't have to face any media scrutiny. The issue of bad officiating isn't new. It's been going on for far too long and it's time to stop. Sports leagues need to do a better job of training officials. They also need to start weeding out older officials who can no longer keep up with the speed of the game, as well as discipline the ones who grade out poorly. This is something fans across the board have been calling for over a number of years. Leagues can no longer hide behind the human error excuse when the technology is readily available. There will be mistakes because we're human, but there shouldn't be outcomes so terribly effected when a solution is at hand. Human error is one thing, but sticking your head in the sand and refusing to embrace a solution to an apparent problem is idiotic.
