Controversial calls that your team was a part of

[TrueYankee26]

Name some moments where your team was a part of a controversy call. Your team can benefit or be screwed by those calls.

After that Brazil-Croatia game where Yuichi Nishimura awarded a controversial penalty kick to Brazil made me think about creating this thread.

[wonderbread]

Tuck rule

[Tigers6884]

Armando Galarraga's "Imperfect Game".

[Raysfan12]

This is as controversial of a call that the Rays are associated with in my book. This call cost the Rays a win against the Rangers.

I also didn't mention about when balls hit the catwalks in Tropicana Field (those are always fun )

[Lights Out]

The Immaculate Deception

The Hochuli Game

Blake Griffin's ejection against the Warriors on Christmas Day

The out-of-bounds call in Game 5 against OKC

[DS729]

US-Slovenia "Offside" call in 2010 FIFA World Cup

Danny Coale's "Out of Bounds" catch in the 2011 Sugar Bowl

I could rag off a lot more Tech stuff... but it's not worth my time. Besides, nothing infuriated me more than that Coale catch.

[pittsburghsports16]

For:

1) Immaculate Reception - Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Oakland Raiders (1972)...My Father was actually on the sidelines playing trumpet for the Pitt Band when the play occured.

2) Superbowl XL (many plays)

3) Renfro's catch denied in 1979 AFC Championship game.

Against:

1) Joe Nedney selling a "roughing the kicker penalty" after missing a GW kick in the 2003 WC game against the Steelers. Gets another chance and wins the game, despite it being an obvious embellishment on his part.

2) In 2005, Troy Polamalu's interception gets overturned in the 2005 AFC Divisional Playoff game against the Colts, setting in motion one of the wildest finishes in NFL History.

[alxy8s]

Against:

Saints-Pats last year. Obvious holding penalty not called on game winner.

Miami-tOSU '02 championship - pass interference

UGA-LSU '09 - AJ Green's "excessive celebration"

For:

2009 NFC Championship - VERY favorable spots on late game fourth down attempts

2006 NBA Finals - It wasn't as bad as people act, but Wade got more benefit of the doubt from officials than I've ever seen a young player get.

2012 NBA Finals - James' foul on KD not called at the end of game 2

[mgdmhl]

Packers getting screwed in the "Fail Mary" game with the replacement refs on Monday Night Football.

Wisconsin Badgers football at Arizona St this last season when the Pac-12 refs didn't call a delay of game penalty on the ASU defense for laying on the ball after the whistle with the clock running, and then refs wouldn't place the ball quickly with less then 10 sec left in the game.

[TorinK92]

Not a controversial call per se, but Suarez's handball on the line against Ghana in 2010 makes me think about situations like that.

If a ball is obviously going into the net (if it's saved on or just before the goal line and there's no reasonable doubt that it would have missed or been saved by the keeper) then instead of a penalty, the goal should just be awarded; as opposed to giving the team a penalty that they might miss.

Players who have robbed goals like that (i.e. Suarez, Gibbs) shouldn't feel like they did a good thing for the team (taking a sure goal conceded and making it around a 70-80% chance of conceding,) but rather not be given the chance to be rewarded for their actions at all.

Not specifically pertinent to this thread, and maybe an unpopular opinion, but it's how I feel about it.

[Cosmic]

Music City Miracle - Titans beat Bills in the playoffs with a last-second (forward?) lateral

No Goal

This is the craziest ^%*&ing one of them all, but it doesn't have a catchy name. Sabres-Flyers in the playoffs. John LeClair scores a "goal" that goes in through a hole in the side of the net. The goal stands, and the Flyers win 2-1. Somebody scored through the side of the net in a one-goal game in the playoffs.

#5 here (2:16)

[Critical Thinker]

The Tigers aren't my team, but I happened to walk into the room in my house where that game was on TV for the Tribe's 27th batter. How Galarraga handled that was one of the classiest moments in sports history.

[CS85]

Armando Galarraga's "Imperfect Game".

[Germanshepherd]

Big XII Title game 1 second left.

[FiddySicks]

Wisconsin Badgers football at Arizona St this last season when the Pac-12 refs didn't call a delay of game penalty on the ASU defense for laying on the ball after the whistle with the clock running, and then refs wouldn't place the ball quickly with less then 10 sec left in the game.

I was at that game. It ended a bit more favorably for me than it did for you I'm sure, but everyone in the stands was confused on that play. It was also the hottest game played anywhere in the country last season (108 degrees at kickoff, three digits all game long), and everyone in that stadium was feeling pretty light headed and tired by the end. The quarterback taking a knee on that last play had to have been because of that. Everyone, including the refs, wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible and into some air conditioning.

[OnWis97]

For:

• 1991 World Series Game 1. Ron Gant appeared to be pulled off the bag by Kent Hrbek and was called out. While I certainly thought it was a bad call, FWIW, the ump (Drew Coble) continued to maintain in interviews months later that he made the right call...that Gant's momentum carried him off the bag and Hrbek kept the tag on him. I see his point in on the reply, but...I don't know. Gant probably should have slid, but the call was still, at best, controversial.

Against:

• The aforementioned ASU/Wisconsin game. It was not a "call" so much as officials losing control (or maybe lacking understanding) of the game.
• Missed call: 2003--OSU's Robert Reynolds chokes Wisconsin's QB Jim Sorgi under a pile after a tackle. It's not seen by the officials. Wisconsin's offense became pretty anemic after the play (with the exception of one long bomb from the backup QB to, I think, Lee Evans). OSU almost came back to win the game and the choke would have been the key play. Kudos to Jim Tressel for keeping him in the game and giving him a one game suspension (and to the Big Ten for letting it stand).
• 2009 NFC title game. In OT, I still think P. Thomas was short on 4th and inches. But since the Vikings put the ball on the turf about every other play that day, that's where my real frustration lies.
• T-Wolves vs. Lakers in the playoffs. Not sure what year, but I think it was one of those first-round losses for the T-Wolves (as opposed to the 2004 conference finals. Walls Sczerbiak "fouls" Kobe Bryant for a four point play. Please note that this did not turn out to matter as Minnesota won the game. But I do think of it when I think about whether or not the NBA deserves its place as the league with the most-questioned legitimacy. (see below) You have to give Kobe that call. No question. Kobe has earned that call. And that's why I don't really like the NBA.
• 2010 ALDS. Joe Mauer's fly ball lands about a foot fair at Yankee Stadium and is called foul. I am not blaming that series on that call (in fact, I think Mauer ended up walking so he only lost one base) but it was just a brutal call.
• BEFORE MY TIME: Late 1970s playoffs. Drew Pearson's hail mary touchdown wins it for Dallas over the Vikings. He pushed off. Clearly.

So what does it say that Iisted one "for" call and six "against" calls. Probably that I, like many fans, remember the negatives and possibly that I deep down think my teams are always getting screwed. Ha.

[dsaline97]

For:

Against: Music City Miracle. I'm 87.3% sure it was a forward pass.

[Kevin W.]

This :censored:er:

And then of course this:

[sc49erfan15]

For:

-1998 NFC Wild Card Game, 49ers @ Packers. Jerry Rice fumbled with roughly 40 seconds left and the 49ers down 27-23. Refs did not call the fumble, despite it clearly being one. Without that, "The Catch II" doesn't happen.

(3:50 in the video below)

-2003 NFC Wild Card Game, Giants @ 49ers. Trey Junkin botches a snap, multiple illegal men downfield, and a botched pass interference call result in a wild finish. The down should've been replayed, but that doesn't guarantee a made field goal.

[tBBP]

That was a good catch, dammit.

Had the refs not ultimately ruled that incomplete (only because the very tip of the ball touched the ground as Bert Emanuel fell to the turf--but AFTER he'd established possession with two hands and one knee, which then equaled two feet), Tampa gets their first down, their drive continues, they could have easily run out the clock, win the game and the NFC title, Tony Dungy gets rewarded for this turnaround job in Tampa (and becomes the first black head coach to make a Super Bowl), Shaun King (remember him?) becomes the first rookie QB to start a Super Bowl...but nah, all because of one overturned call, all that went away. Instead, Rams get the ball back, Kurt Warner finds Ricky Proehl's left shoulder blade in the back corner of the end zone, Rams win [insert "Mokyu" image here] and....y'all know how the rest of that story goes.