What is the worst/most contreversial call in all of sports history?

Question

this can be from any sport.

Answer 1

David Stern fining Mark Cuban for properly (if colorfully) criticizing NBA officiating, which is the worst in the world outside of the Olympic Games. Stern and the entire IOC, past and present, should be sent to Iraq.

Don Denkinger's infamous call is the most obvious of baseball's bad calls, but at least MLB umpires are the best-trained of all officials and can be forgiven most of their mistakes. Umpires can also be very forebearing at times; when a provocation is accidental, they will often let it slide unless the other person escalates it.

I understand there were some really bad red cards in the current World Cup series.

As for Olympic officiating, not only do we have the basketball scandal but also the recent figure-skating scandal that resulted in duplicate golds and a few questionable decisions in gymnastics as well. The IOC (International Olympic Committee) is particularly bad, and has been a nasty piece of business for nearly 100 years, from the domination of Avery Brundage to Samanranch, to today.

But even sleazier than making a bad call is accepting the favorable result of a bad call. On November 16, 1940, Cornell had defeated Dartmouth as the result of a bad call that gave the Big Red a fifth down. When the mistake was discovered, the team voted to voluntarily forfeit the game even though they did not have to do this. The decision cost Cornell the game, an undefeated season and possibly the national championship. That, folks, is sportsmanship.

Answer 2

I think the most controversial call in sport was in the Roy Jones Jr.’s Gold Medal match in the Seoul Olympics. He surely connected more against the weaker Korean opponent but the judges scored him with the lost (he is the only silver medalist to win the best athlete award at the Olympics . I do agree with the 72 men’s basketball game and Don Denkinger’s blown call (that was a bad call) but other then that most are human error and I don’t see the problem. Remember nobody remembers all the rules for a sport they have to be reminded from time to time.

Answer 3

1972 Olympic Basketball. US vs Soviet Union. US was up by 1. The Soviets inbounded from the opposite end of the court. There was one second left, but the refs stopped the game right after the inbound and added 2 more seconds. After the Soviets in-bounded the ball a second time, the horn sounded signaling an apparent American victory. Moments later, the teams were ordered back on the floor because the clock had not been properly reset to show three seconds remaining. Because of this mistake by the scorer's table, the celebrating Americans stood in disbelief when they were told they had not won anything yet.
The were given a third try and scored the winning basket as time expired leabing the US team in disbelief.

Answer 4

Really good question. There are so many to choose from.

Baseball: Gotta be the Don Denkinger call. His name is still mud in St Louis.

College football: The game when Colorado got a fifth down, because the refs missed how many times the team downed the ball. Mizzou had that game won.

NFL: I would say the catch in the St Louis/Tampa Bay game that allowed the Rams to win the NFC Championship game.

Answer 5

NO GOAL! The 1999 Stanley cup finals Buffalo Sabres & Dallas Stars game 6. The Dalls star who scored the goal had his foot clearly in the crease (the blue "safety area" for the goalie in front of the net) but according to a final call by Gary Bettinin, it was declared a goal & Buffalo was defeated, instead of given a chance to stay alive for game 7 and possibly win the Stanley Cup. May Gary Bettinin suffer eternal diarreah!

Answer 6

i am going to provide it a shot. In no order - Pele's bicycle kick objective contained in the international Cup - Ali regaining the international identify - Australian Cricket team, 3 international Cups - Daley Thompson - twin Gold Medals Decathlete - Lance Armstrong - excursion De France domination - Nadia Comenici - Gold Medal Gymnastics - Torvill & Deane - proper 10 - Australia 2 - triumphing the rustic's Cup - Liverpool coming decrease back from 3-0 down contained in the Champions' League very last antagonistic to AC Milan in 2005.

Answer 7

My choice would be the "interference" call against Dallas CB Benny Barnes in Super Bowl XIII vs Pittsburgh. Steelers were up 21-17 at the time and frankly if anyone should have been flagged it was Pittsburgh WR Lynn Swann. That call gave Steelers 1st down deep in Dallas territory when they would have had to punt otherwise. They would score TD and go on to win 35-31.

Answer 8

For me it was in a 1998 football game between the Jets and Seahawks when Testaverde pushed the ball over the goal line for a called touchdown. Afterwards video replay clearly showed he was down short of the goal line. This resulted in Seattle losing and not making the playoffs. Later coach Erickson was fired.

As a result of the play the NFL owners decided that instant replay would be allowed and coaches could make challenges of plays and official calls.

Answer 9

The 1988 Olympic games. Roy Jones Jr dominated the gold medal fight but got robbed of the gold. This is because he went up against the hometown favorite and the judges screwed him. Don Deckinger is a close second.

Answer 10

Either the '72 gold medal game in basketball or the '85 World Series. That call at first was absolutely horrid.