I Want To Feel Bad For The Saints But Shockingly There Have Been Other Horrendous Calls Before

Listen, I want to feel bad for the Saints. It should have been pass interference and likely would have set up a game-winning field goal without having to go to overtime. It sucked if you’re a New Orleans fan.

But, I don’t feel bad. Maybe it’s me getting older and meaner and get off my lawn. But, I simply don’t feel bad for a team that didn’t capitalize early on at home when the Rams couldn’t do shit offensively. Or maybe it’s the fact that we’ve seen other horrendous calls in sports before.

Let’s start with the real reason as to why I don’t feel bad. I’ve lived through it before.

That little asshole known as Jeffrey Maier

Fuck this guy. I’ll never get over this loss as an Orioles fan. I’m convinced this is the only reason Derek Jeter had the career he did. Jeffrey Maier doesn’t reach over on this long flyball out and Jeter doesn’t become Mr. November and all that crap. Similar to the pass interference call this one couldn’t be reviewed and cost the Orioles the game, possibly the series and likely the entire franchise.

Want to go a bit more recent? A blown call with a ref in position helped seal the national title game for UNC. 

It was a one point game with less than a minute to go here. A loose ball with a ref staring at the play and he misses Kennedy Meeks hand clearly out of bounds. The ball should have went to Gonzaga here. Instead UNC kept the ball and scored on the inbounds to push the lead to three. Similar to the pass interference play, I’m not saying Gonzaga would have won the game, but it helped seal it for UNC.

America has been screwed before 

If America can get screwed, I can’t get worked up about the Saints. Everyone knows this story now. America won this game but Russia was given roughly a million different chances and time back on the clock for no reason. It was a screw job before the Montreal Screw Job.

All of these calls happened in playoffs/championship games. There are a bunch more out there. Ultimately that’s why it’s hard to get so worked up about the Saints. I almost feel immune to a horribly missed call during an important game. We’ve seen it so many times and will continue to see it going forward.

Which leads me to the point of this blog – in a way. I guess one point was to just rehash bad memories, but the other point is what the hell do we do going forward? I know a lot of people will immediately say replay, because that’s what we know now. We’re used to a call on the field and then a review. But, how do we determine when to review a bad foul call?

That’s what has to be done. To me it’s simple if you’re going that route. You need to have a ref in the box, away from all other refs, watching all angles. If there’s an egregious missed call such as that, you buzz down. We have so many angles of plays it’s almost impossible to miss a call when watching from home. This goes for all sports.

Most importantly this needs to be quick – as do all reviews. 30 seconds max, teams can’t huddle on the sidelines. We need to stop giving teams free timeouts because of reviews. That’s where this other ref (or plural) are in the box. They are reviewing plays live and quickly. It’ll limit the missed call like what we saw with the Saints game.

I know people will hate it because of losing the human element. But, I prefer calls to be right. I wish we were talking about how great the games were yesterday instead of whether or not teams would have won because of calls. I get it’s different than what we’re used to, but I’m fine with change.

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So, sorry, Saints. Until we get something new going, it’s hard to feel bad for you. This won’t be the last time we see an egregious call missed in a crucial moment.