ekblaw@uiucdcs.CS.UIUC.EDU (11/14/85)
As I mentioned in a response to a previous note, the Broncos may NOT have automatically lost if San Francisco had made that field goal. Remember, the Broncos were playing fairly conservatively when they had the lead. If San Francisco had closed it or gone ahead earlier, that tactic would not have been maintained. THEREFORE, it is an error to assume that the Broncos would have lost. Now, about the officiating -- I agree that a call should have been made about the crowd-throwing snowballers, er, snowball-throwing crowd, but who do you call it on? The home team has been shown to have control over crowd noise, but an incident like this one? No, it is just an example of poor sportsman- ship on the part of some people. That quality is something that exists in some people, and nobody can change it. I also agree that the interference call was very questionable. According to the revised rules of this year, the defender was doing nothing wrong. Yet, it is a fairly new change in the rules. I have seen this error made in other games this year, too, so I can understand it. I don't think it is a good excuse, but I can understand the confusion. Now, about everything else, I didn't see ANY interference in the end zone by EITHER team during the game. I also didn't see any other bad calls during the game. Nothing like the fumbled ball that was not really a touch- down, but called so in the Chicago/Detroit game on Sunday. Look, I've been watching football for years now. There are times that I disagree with some of the calls. But I have taken some time to learn the rules, and some of them are a little vague. Judgement does play a big hand in this things. Also remember that the officials see the play only once, and at normal speed. They don't get the advantage of slow-motion replay like te television viewers get. I tried umpiring a softball game once. Some of the pitches were really close between safe and out. I know that I made some questionable calls, and I received several cat calls during the game. I understand the circumstances that the referees play under. I don't think anything, aside from the two points above, was wrong with Monday night's officiating. Robert A. Ekblaw