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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Actually there were three blown calls. The 2 on the kickoff, touching the ball early and possesion, and the interference. Sure officials make mistakes but 3 on 2 plays with a minute to go? That's sheer incompetence. The on field refs should be suspeneded for the rest of the year and the replay ref fired. BTW, the replay guy had access to all the same angles as the tv audience.
Having obssessed about the game all week and now reading King Kaufman's article and all the letters, I'm confused. Why is Oklahoma somehow the bad guy? Since you just had jury duty, I think a crime metaphor is apt here. The remarks that Oklahoma is over-reacting and whining sound to me like complaining that crime victims should just shut up and take the crime like a man.
Its not like Oklahoma is complaining about every single call that went against them. We are complaining only about the one call - the one call that made the difference between certain victory and possible defeat. The Sooner players and coaches have owned up to their own roles in the defeat - the lack of defensive stops, the blocked field goal, the failures to punch into the end zone and so on. But this is sports. Shit happens.
Lets not forget that the Ducks were winning by a touchdown at half time. They had held OU to 6 points! They then "let" Oklahoma score 27 points to get ahead by 13 points in the fourth quarter. The Ducks "let" Adrian Peterson rush for over 210 yards and a 20 yard touchdown on 4th down. The Ducks would not have needed the onside kick if they simply held on to their lead in the second half. I mention this simply to point out that arguments that Oklahoma - or any team - should not "let" themselves get into a position to lose the game are ridiculous. No team in any sport can entirely control what happens on the field. Thats why you play the game.
Kaufman didn't get to the truth until the very end of his article. Cheating. The PAC 10 cheated. I know everyone wants to simply chalk up the bad call to human error. Everyone, even Oklahomans, can forgive human error. But what if wasn't human error? What if it was cheating? Isn't that question the elephant in the room that no one is talking about?
Oklahoma's outrage is not about being unable to forgive human error, nor is it about replay issues. We are outraged because the onside kick call has the odor of corruption about it.
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