The players and coaches on the field, ice or court are usually the most famous people around during any game or match. Unfortunately, some games and matches aren’t determined by the players physically taking part, or their coaches on the sidelines. But rather by the officiating crew that we either love or hate.
For the most part, the referees make the right calls and the addition of instant replay has been a nice touch.
But that’s not always the case, and let’s face it, if you’ve been to a live game, odds are you yelled at a referee once or twice for a decision he or she made during the game. You may even have refs that you know you love and refs you know you hate.
Sometimes these refs really do blow it, and those are the calls we tend to remember and harp on if our team loses. How many times did we hear a head coach talk about the referees in postgame press conferences? Criticize their decisions and blame them for how the game turned out? We all do it, not just the head coaches.
The refs don’t always deserve it, but when they do, everyone let’s them have it, plus some.
There’s nothing more infuriating when the officiating staff, which we rely on to call a fair game, blow a call that can affect the game. It’s heartbreaking for the teams and for the fans.
Some are blown calls that don’t mean much in the long run, but that’s not the case for the calls on this list. Every blown call on this list triggered a chain reaction that led to one thing or another, and the worst call of all, prevented one guy from adding his name to history.
Reading through these may be brutal, but here they are, the biggest blown calls in sports:
[post_page_title]The 1972 gold medal controversy[/post_page_title]
In the midst of the Cold War, there was no need for controversy to heighten tensions between the US and USSR. But three seconds at the end of the basketball final game ended in what’s been called stolen glory. With those three seconds left, Doug Collins nailed his two free throws, then the mess began. The Soviets tried to take a time out between free throws, and after some complains were awarded the time out with a second remaining. But then William Jones, the British Secretary of Fiba, ordered the clock be reset to three seconds. The Soviets would eventually win. The US team refused to accept the silver medal, and the medals sit untouched until today.
