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Mon Jan 28, 2002, 04:46pm
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As a high level basketball official in Canada, I am usually pretty cautious about being critical of other officials no matter what sport it is. However, after watching the Pats/Steelers game yesterday, I was wondering if anyone else felt the same as I did.
I am not a Pats or a Steelers fan. That said, I could not stop from feeling as though the Pats got screwed on about 3 calls that went to replay. The most blatent one was when the receiver clearly had the ball in his two hands as he fell to the ground and when his elbow hit the turf, the ball popped loose. Even then, I don't think he let the ball touch the ground. There was a pass interference call that was brutal too. The one thing that the referee did however that we can all learn from is he gave clear and precise explanations as to what he saw and based his decision on. This could help all of us on the court next time coach wants to know "how that was a foul". 
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Mon Jan 28, 2002, 04:59pm
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The only call that I thought was questionable was the 1st play that was reviewed. However, I'm not familiar with he NFl rules with regards to when a catch is a catch. But as we all should have learned from the Pats/Raiders game, the NFL has some very different rules. The referee is an excellent official. I have no reason to doubt that he knew what he was talking about in each instance. Also, I didn't have a problem with the OPI call, if that's the one that you're talking about.
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"...as cool as the other side of the pillow." - Stuart Scott "You should never be proud of doing the right thing." - Dean Smith
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Tue Jan 29, 2002, 06:36am
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Hey,
Ed Hochuli is as about as goods as it gets to NFL officiating. I only saw one of the replays - the one where the player caught/didn't catch the ball near the sideline, while falling to the ground. The Back Judge (Kirk Dornan I believe) came in and declared an incomplete pass, saying that he saw the ball hit the ground. An NFL catch is basically defined as complete possession of the ball for a period of time in which one could make a normal football movement (such as a pitch), with both feet on the ground. Both feet were on the ground for this one, however, the official's angle is 6 feet above the ground, probably about 25 yards away - not a far distance. In the time the player touched and rolled with the ball, it may have hit, or touched, the ground. Ruling: incomplete. I agree that it looked like from our angle, it was complete, but we're further away and higher from the ground. What's key to remember is that Ed did a great job by clarifying what he say, that no video evidence (and mentioning the angles available) were sufficient to overturn the call. As for the OPI call, I wasn't there, but I've seen worse let go in the NFL. However, every call exists now and 5 minutes from now. ..Mike [Edited by JugglingReferee on Jan 29th, 2002 at 05:40 AM]
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