Worst Calls Ever -- to Go Against MIchigan
Mine is the Charles White "fumble" TD . . . there are so many that could be listed. This one falls #10 on the ESPN List of Worst Calls Ever in All Sports
lhttp://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/worstcalls/010730.html
February 26th, 2015 at 1:19 PM ^
February 26th, 2015 at 1:55 PM ^
tell me I got part of this right.
February 27th, 2015 at 4:36 AM ^
Tirico and Herbstreit on the call.
February 26th, 2015 at 1:19 PM ^
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February 26th, 2015 at 10:15 AM ^
that call on Burke pissed me off.... until i just watched it again. Seriously furious. I have no idea how players can deal with it. I don't have the anger management to play sports at that level. I'd be barking about it years later.
February 26th, 2015 at 10:45 AM ^
February 26th, 2015 at 10:30 AM ^
The holding called on Michigan in the middle of the 4th quarter of the 1990 Rose Bowl. Score was tied at 10-10 with USC. The hold is not visible on any of the films, cost Michigan a 22 yard gain, set them back 10 and likely cost Michigan the game. This was Bo's last game.
February 26th, 2015 at 11:56 AM ^
Michigan probably would have scored a TD or a FG and shifted momentum of the game in UM's favor. MIchigan was not only called for holding, but there was an unsportmanlike conduct penalty on Bo for going nuclear DEFCON 4 on the official's lying ass. The call sucked the life out of the Michigan team an bench as they were celebrating the trick play only to have it nullified.
The Wolverines played an inspired third quarter, limiting the Trojans to just 27 yards while scoring the tying touchdown. Michigan scored on their second drive of the quarter as Allen Jefferson scored from two yards out to tie the game at 10.
The game's pivotal play came on a fourth and two from the Michigan 46 with 12:00 left in the contest. On that play, Wolverine punter Chris Stapleton's fake punt gained 24 yards, but a holding penalty and a subsequent unsportsmanlike conduct penalty pushed Michigan back to its own 21 and eliminated the first down. Southern Cal took advantage of Michigan's misfortune, marching 75 yards in 13 plays for the game-winning td.
February 27th, 2015 at 4:45 AM ^
I believe the ref who made the call made a comment after the game that he wasn't letting Bo win his last game or something along those lines.
The call was ridiculous, but the fact that the ref openly admitted to puposely calling it incorrectly was even more insane.
February 26th, 2015 at 10:27 AM ^
The year they finished undefeated. We beat them in regulation, but the refs blew a call at the end. Back then, the rule (since changed) was that a "tip-in" was good only if the ball entered the basket before the time ran out. They missed a shot, and Kent Benson tipped it in, tipping it before the buzzer. One ref said the ball went in before the buzzer (WRONG) and the other said it was a shot, not a tip (Equally WRONG). We lost (to the better team) in OT.
February 26th, 2015 at 10:27 AM ^
February 26th, 2015 at 11:46 AM ^
Just a few corrections here. Memories fade after all... It's CRABLE... don't know if the misspelling is intentional or not. The hit was out of bounds and I have no real beef with the call although it was very close. Helmet to helmet had exactly zero bearing in 2006. OSU played and got stomped by LSU in the NC game. I like to think we would have made a better showing, but we can't compare it to FLA. Cheers and Go Blue.
February 26th, 2015 at 2:46 PM ^
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February 26th, 2015 at 10:27 AM ^
I can't handle any more of it, it's too frustrating.
February 26th, 2015 at 10:34 AM ^
Refs calling a bogus foul on MAAR when it was clearly a foul on the msu defender. MAAR was on fire and now had to sit.
February 26th, 2015 at 11:03 AM ^
1. Charles White fumbled TD because it was in the Rose Bowl and also, the ball just remained there lying on the one yard line. How does this get missed?
2. Eddie Brown tripping Desmond Howard. First Brown grabs Howard around the waist, Desmond slips out of the hold and gets past Brown, Brown dives and grabs Howard's legs tripping him up. Desmond still manages to get his hands on the ball as he's falling to the ground. Can't say with 100% certainty that Howard catches the ball if he isn't fouled but odds are very high that he does. I feel the worst case scenario is that the flag should have been thrown and Michigan gets one more shot at the 2 pts from the one yard line.
3. Spartan Bob clock "management". Its very close but with a normal delay of a official seeing a play, then making a motion to signify the clock stopping , then the clock manager pushing the button to stop the clock, I believe time should have expired. I believe good ol Sparty Bob wasn't watching the official waiting for a signal, but was instead watching the clock, with his finger hovering over the stop button, and he was going to hit that stop button at the one second mark no matter what happened on the field. It was very questionable and controversial as the rule was changed from the clock being run by a home team employee to a game official.
4. The 1973 vote sending OSU to the Rose Bowl. at the time it was Rose or no bowl. Again, as in number 3 above, a Michigan screw job causes a rule change. After this bit of boloney Big Ten teams were allowed to go to other bowls.
February 26th, 2015 at 11:13 AM ^
Lynch scored the game winning goal in OT, but the ref blew the whistle as the puck went in and we ended up losing in double OT. It really sucked because the Frozen Four was at Ford Field that year.
February 26th, 2015 at 1:15 PM ^
February 26th, 2015 at 11:14 AM ^
lots of success followed by inexplicable heartbreak.
I'm not saying Chicago Cubs-like heartbreak, but maybe a little like the Boston Redsox heartbreak.
February 26th, 2015 at 11:17 AM ^
The call when Junior Hemmingway got robbed is the Worst in my opinion, because if we would have won that game, we would won a share of the Big 10 championship.
February 26th, 2015 at 8:54 PM ^
We would have shared the Legends division but MSU had the tie breaker
February 26th, 2015 at 11:23 AM ^
February 26th, 2015 at 11:24 AM ^
These aren't the most heartbreaking, since we ended up winning them all, but still some pretty awful calls that set Bo off.
February 26th, 2015 at 12:39 PM ^
That '77 TAM game was awesome...the sort of game you lose sleep over the night before. Then we absolutely curb stomp them for 60 minutes. Back in those days you could leave the stadium for a halftime beer/cocoa. It was great.
Those Mike White Illinios teams were the dirtiest I've ever seen in the B1G. Dirtier than the Perles Sparty teams.
I watched that Hawaii game in the dorm lounge with a bunch of freshman football players and their EMU girlfriends included in the large gathering. I think there was an especially limited travel roster because Hawaii. They were total dicks. By the end of the game I didn't really care if we won or lost.
I can't wait to see JH on the sidelines. It will be the first time we have that sort of gravitas since 89.
Go Blue.
February 26th, 2015 at 11:56 AM ^
'98 Rose Bowl. "On Washington State's final drive, the Cougars got a first down at midfield even though Washington State WR Nian Taylor possibly interfered with Michigan CB Charles Woodson on a 3rd down pass play."
February 26th, 2015 at 11:59 AM ^
I tend to judge things like this based on the ones that made the normally low-key, calm me fly into a very uncharacteristic tirade that even my wife couldn't immediately pull me back from, and if I judge it like that, Burke's supposed foul against Siva probably tops the list. "Clockgate", the call that negated Darboh's catch in the Rutgers game and, in the same game as Burke, the inability of the refs to add up Hancock's fouls are definitely up there too.
February 26th, 2015 at 12:02 PM ^
If you include non-calls, I would go with the missed illegal procedure penalty on the 1994 Colorado hail mary play.
February 26th, 2015 at 1:14 PM ^
February 26th, 2015 at 12:18 PM ^
It's the Phantom Touchdown OP mentions.
Cost us the Rose Bowl.
February 26th, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^
the two true contenders are #1 the Desmond thing because it was so obvious and #2 the Lantry kick because it was the game no ifs ands or buts, we win if the play is called correctly.
February 26th, 2015 at 12:25 PM ^
The 1979 Rose Bowl fumble by Charles White on the 2 yard line that was ruled a USC TD was the worst. That score was the difference as USC won 17-10. The announcers during the replay couldn't believe the call and even Charles White admitted later he fumbled.
February 26th, 2015 at 12:55 PM ^
but Marion Body's bogus PI call to set up Harry Oliver's ND field goal really sucked.
February 26th, 2015 at 1:18 PM ^
to call Charles White's fumble by the name it had in the papers for the next week (or so my childhood memory recalls):
The Phantom Touchdown
It's one of the worst calls ever, not just against us. I still get a little angry about that one.
February 26th, 2015 at 4:43 PM ^
A side story to the Charles White phantom TD:
I was outraged when I read White's account of the play in the paper the next day. He claimed that he knew he was in and actually saw the official signal TD before the ball left his hands. Keep in mind that White was the Heisman winner that year, and it struck me as classless that he would spin such a bullshit story as this. Why not just keep you mouth shut and say something like "It was close, I don't know, yadda yadda". So I wrote Charles a letter. I basically told him that as a Heisman winner there were certain standards that he was expected to uphold and lying about that play was well outside of those standards. I dropped it in the mail and felt a tiny bit better.
Fast forward a couple of weeks. It was after midnight and I was sitting around my home in Detroit when the phone rings. "Hello?" "Collect call from Charles White" "Huh?" "Collect call from Charles White" Then I hear another voice on the line: "Charles White, the Heisman Trophy winner". Holy shit, it was Charles White (and his girlfriend, who I think put him up to it) on the phone. Of course I accepted the charges, and I proceeded to have a ten-minute chat with my new bud Charles. He said that he had gotten many letters about this, and that he decided to call me because a) I was one of the few who weren't profane and b) I included my phone number.
We actually had a nice conversation, and he discussed at length the pressure involved in being a big-time player and especially a Heisman winner. He actually came off as a bit of a sympathetic character (unlike the girlfriend, who seemed to be a rather angry bitch). At he end he thanked me for talking and for being civil, and we ended the call.
Fast forward a couple of years later, and the Browns were playing the Lions at the Silverdome. I made a point of waiting around after the game and found Charles as he came out of the locker room. I walked up to him and told him my name, which not surprisingly meant nothing to him. I then told him our history ("Remember that Michigan fan you called that night...?") and he laughed and greeted me with a hug.
While that call pisses me off to this day, I atv least gained a Heisman-winning pal as a result...
February 26th, 2015 at 1:18 PM ^
I haven't read all of the posts but add the holding call on the fake punt in the 1990 rose bowl, Spartan Bob and there was a goal waived off against the Dynasty in a NCAA playoff game.
I like how they refer to the Charles White call as contraversial rather than blown. I think the only contraversy was whether it was done on purpose or whether it was a mistake.
February 26th, 2015 at 2:00 PM ^
Worst called games:
- Michigan - MSU clockgate game. Whole game was just as pathetic of officiating as you could ever see even before the fiasco with the clock.
- Michigan - Louisville.
- Michigan at the Breslin in 2014 even though we won. Refs did everything they could to try to give that game to State.
February 26th, 2015 at 2:47 PM ^
Worst individual plays that come to mind:
- DeSean Sims has his jersey pulled from behind on the last play of a one point game against State and it doesn't get called.
- Roundtree gets drilled way before the ball gets there against Iowa on the 2 point conversion to tie it up at the end of regulation and it doesn't get called.
- Arnez Battle fumbles into the endzone in the 2002 Michigan-ND game and it's called a TD.
- Henne scores the tying TD at the end of the 2005 Michigan-ND game. It's called short and not reviewed. We fumble the next play and of course they choose to review that.
- Fitz' touchdown to wrap up an amazing win is overturned in an absurd decision at the end of Michigan - OSU in 2011. Luckily we still make a 40 yard field goal and hold on to win.
- Desmond Howard against State but I was five at the time.
I'm sure I'm missing a ton; it feels like every year there are a couple of decisions that at the time I'm calling "one of the worst calls I've ever seen" lol.
edit: just started reading through the tread and I forgot it was Carlyle Holliday, not Battle on the fumble by ND in 2002.
February 27th, 2015 at 4:41 AM ^
The Roundtree play was actually for a TD. A play earlier, the Hemingway catch (and TD) is somehow called incomplete. I think we were on the 2 or 3 yard line with a few seconds left. So if the correct call had been made, we would have the ball 1st down with whatever time was left to run one more play from the 1 or 2 yard line.
Comically officating at the end of that game and the same took place on that Toussiant reversal.
February 27th, 2015 at 4:44 AM ^
John Navarre is my hero as well. Actually was my favorite Michigan player ever until Denard came along (I'm only 28). I think how much he was criticized made me love him more since I defended him so much his junior and senior year and eventually he really did back up everything I had said about him.
February 28th, 2015 at 1:42 AM ^
I'm 29 so we are in the same boat. We used to have to do a journal for one of my English classes and almost all my entries were about Michigan Foobtall. That was a really fun time back then.
February 26th, 2015 at 2:24 PM ^
How about the '93 title game vs. UNC? Eric Montross throws his shoulder into Juwan, sends him flying, calls for the ball, turns to shoot a little hook and gets absolutety stuffed by Ray Jackson -- hand on ball -- and Jackson gets called for the foul!?!?
That game is remembered for the Webber time out, but the biggest reason Carolina won is Montross shot about 12 free throws and deserved NONE! The refs wanted to send Dean out a winner, badly.
February 26th, 2015 at 4:26 PM ^
has to be the Big Ten's vote to send Uh-Hi-Uh to the Rose Bowl in 1973. Period.
February 26th, 2015 at 5:17 PM ^
February 26th, 2015 at 6:03 PM ^
1973, Desmond hold, Sparty Bob, Charlie White fumble, Lantry kick, even Jackson and Paterno calling the Game thought so.
February 26th, 2015 at 7:12 PM ^
February 27th, 2015 at 4:43 AM ^
After that Pass Interfence early in the game this past year, I just laughed. I could never have predicted Hoke having such a braindead gameplan, but when I saw Notre Dame get that call, I knew we were not going to be allowed to play any defense on the receivers.
February 26th, 2015 at 7:35 PM ^
February 26th, 2015 at 8:24 PM ^
February 27th, 2015 at 2:48 PM ^
Read through all the posts. I vote for the phantom holding call in Bo's last game. For some reason, that one just infuriates me no matter how much time passes. The fact that it was USC in the Rose Bowl, and we had a long history of playing like the other team had 12 men on the field, made it significant. The fact that is was Bo's last game made it historic. The fact the BO FRICKIN' SCHEMBECHLER called a fake punt play (for what, the first time in his coaching career?!) made it unique. The fact that Michigan made the first down on the play made it glorious. And then, the terrible, terrible call that not even the guys in the box with all the TV replay tools (of the time) at their disposal could even find an arguable, maybe, perhaps open to interpretation ghost of a play was just...I don't know man. I'd even forgotten about the insult to injury "unsportsmanlike" penalty they tacked on. I guess what gets me is I've never seen a legendary coach more comprehensively disrespected in his last game, when the norm is to send someone out with a big, wet kiss.
February 27th, 2015 at 5:53 PM ^
1. Burke's "foul"
2. Alamo Bowl vs Nebraska
3. Rutgers No Catch