Do you know who Dick Honig is? I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't. He is a long time Ann Arbor resident, U of M grad and a former All Big Ten Wolverine shortstop on the Michigan Baseball team in 1962. After his playing days, he was also an assistant basketball and baseball coach for the Wolverines.
That isn't the real story. Dick was a basketball official and a football official for 20 years in the Big Ten and for 9 years in the MAC. He also has owns an store for officials gear called Dick's Whistle Stop in Ann Arbor.
Wouldn't it be great for Dick to travel a few minutes from his home and officiate a Michigan game in the Big House? It would, but you can't have an official that lives in Ann Arbor and a former Michigan grad officiate a Michigan Football game. It's a clear conflict of interest, even if the official is trust worthy and great at what he does. At the end of the day, officials are humans beings that will always lean one way or another.
The Big Ten made a huge error in the Michigan game and it wasn't the missed calls. It was the officials they put on the field.
- Kevin Schwarzel the back judge for the game, lives in Ohio and is on record as an Ohio State fan. In 2006, he was not allowed to officiate the OSU - Michigan game for conflict of interest. He was the back judge on Saturday.
- Bobby Sagers, the side judge for the game. Bobby is also from Ohio and was recently inducted in the OHSAA hall of fame in Columbus.
- Daniel Capron the lead official was fired by the Big Ten in 2002 for being a poor official.
Schwarzel and Sagers should never been on the field for the biggest game of the year. That is a clear conflict of interest. I don't know these men and I don't know their integrity, but that doesn't matter as they are humans and could not make a neutral decision. I'm less concerned with Capron, he might have become a better official in the last 14 years.
This is the huge mistake by the Big Ten and puts the entire game under a light the Big Ten will run away from as fast as they can. The Big Ten's worst fear is that a game would be fixed by officials. A conference will always back their officials even when mistakes are made on the field.
All of our arguments are "matter of opinion" on pass interference or the 4th down spot. The huge issue is there were "Ohio" officials on the field and their integrity and rooting interest has to be questioned, because they never should have been put in that position by the Big Ten. It really can't be questioned that the Big Ten made a huge mistake and could have (or did) affect the outcome. Jimmy has every right to be mad at the officials and the Big Ten for this clear conflict of interest.
- Reports are that Peppers mother is starting to interview agents. This is not a surprise.
- On the 4th down spot and the reason the booth got it wrong was the location of the Ohio State's TE butt. Barrett gets hit low by Hill, but he then runs in the butt of the #88 OSU TE and falls back two yards. If his butt is past the line, first down. His butt was clearly short of the yard to gain. There was no way the booth was going to overturn that call. There was also a good camera angle from behind that showed he was short that the booth clearly ignored.
6 comments:
[Reprint from your last post]
It appears that it's not only the Michigan fan base that has noticed the poor officiating of "The Game" this Saturday, it seems as though everyone has not only noticed but they've voiced their surprise about it.
We shouldn't be surprised that osu cheats because they've always done it, but this one was so obvious that it seems to be offensive to the general football public. It maybe based upon what Martin Luther King, Jr., once said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." If Michigan is allowed to be screwed by the B1G and osu then they can and will do it to others as well.
We need to in an organized manner, express our displeasure to the conference and the CFP powers that be. Michigan should be playing for the B1G title and hopefully the playoffs. IMHO!!!
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If we don't make a big stink out of this NOW, while we can then it will die and the world will forget it by this time next week. I don't know how we should protest this or even if there is an attorney for Michigan that can file some sort of petition to have the NCAA review the game, the call and how the officials were selected for this game but this requires immediate action. Something should be done now and it should be posted all over the media in such a manner that it embarrasses the B1G and they are moved to correct it or at the very least make a public response to it. IMHO!!!
Why didn't they measure the spot? In a close big game like that. What's up with that move?
Makes me want to barf about the officials...it's totally disgusting and to have all those pseudo-officials rooting for Ohio State while they are trying to make a call...
Bob, good info, but why is it allowed? What can be done? As Steve Zander asks why was it not measured also?
Great synopsis by VOR... we are all hurting by this loss, but no matter what it still stands...
Bob, thanks for info. How big is this story? Is the B10 getting questioned why they allowed these two men to officiate the game?
Regarding not measuring, I thought I saw one official motion to chain gang that it was a first down and they are to move. If that was the case, they moved and their original spot to mark from would have been gone and making a measurement impossible.
Why they would not have kept their spot as it was a huge call and wait until they knew for sure they were not needed is beyond me. Again, poor officiating.
Tim,
Let me clarify how the chains work as I am part of a chain crew. On a chain crew the clip man should have two clips. At the start of a series of downs he clips the 5 yard line nearest the line of scrimmage. If a new set of downs is achieved and the chains have moved he takes his second clip and clips the new nearest 5 yard line closest to the line of scrimmage. He does not remove the first clip until one play is run. This is in the event they move inadvertently or are incorrectly directed to. If they were running, as they should with two clips, they could have easily gone back to the spot they were within an inch or two.
A long time lurker with my first post. This is one of my favorite sites and I try to check in at least once a day!
Just a comment regarding not measuring for the phantom first down. Since the line of scrimmage was the 25 yard line wouldn't the plane of the 15 yard line be as accurate as measuring with the chains?
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