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posted by BH

From ESPN.com (surprise!). It's about an incident that happened two months ago that no one outside of Norman thinks about. It is about nothing.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The replay official for the Oklahoma-Oregon football game says he knew that Oklahoma recovered a pivotal onside kickoff late in the game.

Really? Then why didn't he make the right call?

But Gordon Riese told The Oklahoman that replay rules prevented him from correcting on-field officials who made the wrong call and awarded possession to Oregon, even though it was clear to Riese that Oklahoma's Allen Patrick had recovered the ball.

What? Isn't replay in place so that officals who make incorrect on-field calls can be corrected? This seems like sort of irresponsible reporting maybe. What rules, exactly?

Riese also said that if he had seen the correct angle of the replay, it would have been easy to reverse the result of the call and give possession to Oklahoma, which could have run out the clock. But that didn't happen, he said, and Oregon took advantage of the officiating blunder, scoring a last-minute touchdown to win 34-33.

That's weird, because I was watching the game, and saw replay after replay that showed conclusively that an Oregon player had touched the ball before it had reached the 45 yard line. Don't officals in the replay booth use replays provided by networks?

"This was the easiest call to make, if I'd gotten the [correct] replay," Riese said. "It would have been the right call. It would have been the correct call. The Oregon kid touched the ball at the 44-yard line."

If it was so easy, why didn't you make the right call? You did have the correct replay, by the way. It was the network replay the rest of us saw. I just told you that.

Riese said the only replay angle he saw on the play came from Oklahoma's end zone, which he said prevented him from making the correct call. But he did see something else.

Lie. The only camera in the stadium you had access to was in the Oklahoma endzone?

"I saw the ball laying on the ground, the Oklahoma kid picks up the ball with his knee on the ground," he said. "I knew it was Oklahoma ball."

Then give the ball to Oklahoma. I'm pretty sure you wanted to make sure you did the right thing.

But, Riese said, he chose to follow the rules of the replay system, which meant he couldn't tell the on-field Pacific-10 Conference officials of their error -- even though the referee asked him which team had recovered.

So rules state that a replay official is not allowed to correct errors on the field? I'm confused.

"I can't let it go," he said. "It's something we officials have just been schooled with -- to get the call right -- and I didn't do it that day."

Yeah, you're either a chicken shit or stupid. Either way, you blew it that day.

"I worry about the screwup we did in the Oklahoma game," he said. "It's inexcusable."

Except you're making excuses.

This piece is a combination of poor journalism and a crappy person trying to save his ass. What were the rules that completely contradicted replay rules the rest of us have heard of? He didn't have the guts to do the right thing at the time, but now he's blaming others for it. Did I mention this happened two months ago? It doesn't matter.