It's "Official"; Sports are in the hands of dangerous men

It's intrinsic of professional sports that those who oversee a game, or fight, will have some effect on how that particular event turns out. The problem is, as we've seen recently in both college and pro football, the MLB playoffs, and combat events both domestic and abroad, officials are actively altering the outcomes of events through poor judgment and general over zealousness.

More so than probably any other athletic event, the visibility of officials and the scrutiny that can arise from their actions is most pronounced in combat sports. And for good reason; the referee is charged with literally protecting the lives of the fighters. However, the purpose of a boxing or MMA match is no only for two combatants to prove who is the better fighter, it is more than likely their cheif source of income. When a referee fails to their job properly through indecision in protecting a defenseless fighter, or a nervous, knee-jerk reaction to a temporarily stunned fighters, they are not only taking money away from a fighter at that moment, they could be threatening the future earning power for said fighter.

If you need an example of what exactly it is I'm talking about, look no further than last weekend's WEC card, DREAM.11 and the ShoBox card from October 2nd. Starting with the ShoBox card, in the Antwone Smith-Henry Crawford bout, in the 9th round Smith leveled Crawford with a right that should have stopped the bout. Unfortunately for Smith's brain, the referee and his clearly uncaring cornermen (who came to the ring without an enswell to bring down the swelling on their fighter's face) allowed the fighter to endure a legal assault for the remainder of the round, and part of the next. In a perfect, or even halfway decent, world, when the referee heard Crawford's cornermen yell "wake him up!" in between the 9th and 10th rounds, he would have waved the fight off. Realistically, the bout was over in the 6th round after Smith brutalized Crawford while he basically stood still with his hands down. But ,we live in an imperfect world where referees who will not wave off a bout unless a fighter is starring at the ceiling are extremely prevalent.

On the MMA side, the standard go-to scapegoat for fans' ire towards referee incompetence is aimed at Cecil Peoples or the fighter tackling Dan Miragliotta. But, as Sherdog's Jordan Breen points out in his most recent op-ed piece, the real enemy fans should know is boxing/MMA referee Jon Schorle. I'll be honest, I was only partially aware of Schorle's incompetence before seeing his antics at the weekend's WEC event. I had seen him allow Vitali Klitschko to destroy Corrie Sanders while Sanders offered nothing in the way of defense, but I never connected the man with his horrible decision making. Well now I've seen the light, and wow does it hurt. Dave Jansen versus Rich Crunkilton provides a shining example of why Schorle should not be allowed anywhere near an MMA event, or boxing for that matter. After a clear groin shot to Crunkilton, not only did he not call for a foul timeout right away, he allowed Jansen to slam him to the mat before intervening. As fans at home were left dumbfounded by his brilliant fighter condition check of "you okay dude?", Schorle added to his ridiculousness by giving Jansen about 10 seconds to work on the ground after a takedown (on multiple occasions mind you) before resuming the fight on the feet. Problem is, Jansen was getting tooled on the feet by Crunkilton, and his recourse to stop the beating was to take him down and control him on the ground.

This is precisely what I am talking about when I say officials are altering the outcome of sporting events. Jansen clearly understood that his easiest route to victory was to use his superior takedowns and top control to win the bout. But, Schorle actively attempted to force Jansen out his gameplan, for some unknown reason, by limiting his ability to work his grappling. When fans, who are notorious for booing when a fight hits the floor, are booing because the fight is stood up by an overzealous referee, there is clearly a problem. Jansen was correctly awarded a decision, but fighters train to enter the cage an take on one opponent, not two.

Recently, the umpires employed by the MLB have committed egregious and inexcusable mistakes on an far too frequent basis. Possibly even more horrifying about these occurrences than the obvious fact that they cost teams games or kill momentum, is that they are being committed by quality umpires. In the tragic case of Joe Mauer's double that wasn't against the Yankees, the man who blew the call was 10 year veteran Phil Cuzzi. Yes the call was absolutely brutal, but the backlash has been relatively minimal simply because the Twins had multiple chances to overcome that blown call. Flip over to the National League, where on consecutive nights, the Rockies were victimized by horrible "safe" calls at first base by a 10 year, and 16 year vets respectively. Had any of these 3 calls been bang-bang plays, you could give a bit of a pass to these otherwise excellent umpires. However, in no way were any of these plays disputable. Mauer's ball landed well inside the foul line and Todd Helton clearly kept his foot on the bag on both plays against the Phillies.

The obvious solution is for baseball is to institute an expanded replay system to correct blown calls. Here's the real solution; in the playoffs, there are 6 umpires on the field during the game. Is there any conceivable reason why these umpires can't huddle up and discuss the call? The common thread between the 3 plays is that in all cases, the call was made solely by the corresponding umpire. Especially during the playoffs, umpires are scrutinized for just about every call they make. If the home plate umpire makes a horrid strike call, fans are going to notice more than if the game was being played in May. I try (key word: try) to be objective watching games the involve my New York Yankees. That's why it pains me to watch the umpires possibly alter the outcome of games by either having an inconsistent strike zone, or give in to the pressure of the dreaded make-up call. Is there a more embarrassing occurrence in professional sports than an official intentionally throwing a call simply in the name of competitive balance? Consistency is the cure for bad umpiring, not inconsistency that results in a call being made despite it clearly being the wrong one to make.

I hate to keep piling on the Rockies because they just lost a tough Game 4 at home, but the clinching game had one of the most blatant and embarrassing examples of a make up call in recent memory. After catcher Yorvit Torrealba was punched out an a pitch that was clearly low and inside, the catcher proceeded to complain to the home plate umpire about the location of the pitch. Although it didn't change the call at the moment, as it never does, the guilt trip that was laid on the umpire clearly affected him. Later in the game, with Torrealba behind the plate, the Phillies fell victim to a make up strike call that was even worse than the one previous. As if he were celebrating the fact that the umpire intentionally jobbed the Phils in retribution, Torrealba nodded and looked back at the home plate ump. Classy. Usually when cheating occurs in professional sports, the players and officials have the good taste to at least attempt to cover it up.

Which brings us to the ever degrading state of the officiating crews in football. It is a strong possibility that football has the most flexible set of concrete rules ever put to paper. Just about every call that is made in the course of a football game is a judgment call, despite there being defined criteria for every penalty. But the problem isn't with the rules, it's with the referees who refuse to let the players decide the game in favor of allowing a piece of yellow fabric dictate a teams' ability to win. Georgia versus LSU would probably have to be the most blatant example of over reacting officials deciding a game so far this season in football. As A.J. Green celebrates, rather mildly mind you, a huge score against a hated rival, up goes the flag and away goes 15 yards of field position to LSU. Oh, but have no fear, after the Tigers immediately got the ball near midfield and scored a TD right back at Georgia, the officials threw a make up flag for LSU's celebration. Great, that 15 yards will really help with :20 seconds left, down by 4 with no timeouts. And let's not be delusional, LSU could have gone Barry Sanders with their celebration and simply handed the ball to the back judge, and they still would have been flagged for excessive celebration.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; roughing the passer penalties are complete nonsense and need to be adjusted to adhere to the criteria for any other unnecessary roughness or late hit penalty. Leave it to the NFL to hire an entire staff of referees that parade around in skirts and stilettos in their down time.

Colts-Titans: Peyton Manning is dragged down to the ground by a lineman who already had a hold of him and was bringing him to the ground as the ball was thrown. FLAG - roughing the passer. The Colts proceed score a TD on the next play.

Jets-Dolphins: Ben Hartsock goes across the middle, jumps 4 inches in the air trying to get to a ball over his head, gets leveled Gibril Wilson just as the ball passes over Hartsock's hands. FLAG - unnecessary roughness; defenseless receiver. (dumbest...penalty...ever. Receivers make themselves defenseless, deal with it)

Patriots-Broncos: 4th quarter, Broncos down by 7, Brandon Merriweather breaks up a pass to Eddie Royal. FLAG: Taunting, the flag was clearly thrown before Merriweather even got off the ground, which would signal that the ref was going to flag him for something else but decided to change him mind. The Broncos tied the game on the next play after moving half the distance to the goal.

Bengals-Ravens: 4th quarter, Bengals down by 4, 3rd down and long, Ed Reed breaks up a pass to Chad Ochocinco. FLAG - pass interference, Reed barely touches Ochocinco on the play. The Bengals score the winning TD on the next play.

Jets-Dolphins (again): 4th quarter, Jets down by 4, Sanchez goes up top to Braylon Edwards, he drops the TD pass (shocking!). FLAG - pass interference, Will Allen literally doesn't even touch Edwards on the play. Jets move 45 yards down the field and score at TD on the next play.

And these are all just examples from this week! I could throw in Ed Hoculi's brutal gaffe in the Broncos-Chargers game from last season, but let's keep things current shall we? Can I say without an iota of doubt that any of these games would have turned out any different without these calls? Of course not. My problem is that the players are becoming increasingly handcuffed with their ability to decide the game for themselves. The NFL, like most other sports, is exceedingly star driven to an almost nauseating level. What sets the NFL apart from other professional leagues, with the NBA being a glaring exception, is that the rules can be adjusted to coddle their money makers. Look no further than the unwritten "Tom Brady rule" for proof. Go back to the previously discussed Colts-Titans game. 3 plays before the penalty already listed, Kyle Vanden Bosch is blocked into the backfield and as he tries to get up, hits Manning in the knees. Guess what happened next? If you answered anything other than a roughing the passer flag, you either haven't been paying attention or are just unbelievably dense.

It's a sad state of affairs when one team can go into a game knowing that they will be limited in what they can do, simply because they're playing against Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, etc. Is it too much to ask that officials limit their star struck tendencies, call a game both ways, and occasionally swallow the whistle when Brady starts complaining if the defense looks at him funny? The saying goes "may the best man win", not "may the worst officials decide who wins".