All this video needs is J. Walter Weaterman’s arm landing in the end zone.

The Daily What is the Internet’s leader in Furry Gangnam Style parody videos and GIFs of cats trying to get out of boxes, but it’s also my go-to for videos of children being devastated by sports failures. Earlier today they posted that video you were probably expecting of a kid crying about the St. Louis Cardinals losing. Now, here’s a pee-wee football game that ends with an interception, then totally does not end with an interception. DEVASTATION.

YouTubers Laurineisabracken and mritty115 are here with more:

Can someone explain to me what just happened?

Kid in the green who intercepted the ball heard the buzzer and assumed that meant game over, so he threw the ball on the ground. But in football, the game doesn’t end when the timer runs out, it ends *when the guy with the ball is downed*. By throwing the ball, he basically fumbled it. Kid on the red team realized the game wasn’t over yet, the *play* wasn’t over yet, and picked up the ball and ran for a Touchdown. Red wins.

Look at his face. That kid on the green team just learned a lot about rage.

"Haha, call the game balanced... that's fresh."

I made myself a promise before both NBA Conference Finals series began – do not get caught up in the officiating blame game. Right off the bat, with the Boston Celtics down 2-0 to the Miami Heat, I had a daunting task of getting through hundreds of Tweets and Facebook statuses during each game, as people blamed the officials for bad plays and terrible calls. My refuge was the incredible Western Conference Finals, of which I expected solid, entertaining basketball to define the series.

For the most part, that was true. But even last night, as the Oklahoma City Thunder procured the misery of Seattle sports fans with the Western Conference title, the refs couldn’t escape the blame, which is sad because this series was an instant classic. Most notably, it was that unlovable old curmudgeon Joey Crawford who once again set the gold standard. If you’re unfamiliar with Crawford, he is, more than likely, the worst official in all of sports.

That’s a bold claim, I know, because I watch baseball more than anything and Joe West is horrendous. But you can’t watch a single game that Crawford officiates without throwing your hands in the air and saying, “What the f*ck!” at least once. And if the NBA wanted to shed the stigma of being a rigged league with the dirtiest refs, David Stern would fire Crawford. It’s not like Stern hasn’t recognized how awful Crawford is in the past.

In the meantime, I want to celebrate the absolute worst thing about a sport that I love so much with this small sampling of his finest/most horrendous career moments. (Add your favorite omissions in the comments because God knows there are hundreds more.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Life sure is tough for this loser.

Real Madrid star and athlete No. 647 to have dated Kim Kardashian, Cristiano Ronaldo was none too pleased with the officials of his team’s 1-0 victory over Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday. He complained that the top priority of the Champions League referees should be to protect the awesomeness that is Ronaldo. After all, he is the most important athlete on the face of the planet.

“We are very happy with three points we took, but I’m not so satisfied with the refereeing,” he told reporters. “I hope we never have this referee again. People talk of fair-play, of protecting good players, but I never get any of that. I don’t understand a thing.

“I’m sad because I hear referees saying they will protect skilful players, but while some are untouchable it seems I can be mauled.” (Via The Guardian)

Pretty standard bitching and moaning about officiating, nothing to see here. But it’s the follow-up quote that really sprays the money shot.

“I think that because I am rich, handsome and a great player people are envious of me. I don’t have any other explanation.”

How could there be any other explanation? He’s clearly so humble and respectable that the only reason people might boo him is because it’s just so impossible to take our eyes off of him. In fact, I wrote this entire post with my erection.

NBA referees are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore, and it has nothing to do with them being the worst at their jobs of any professional sports officials, but rather their frustrations with the leagues refusal to negotiate. The NBA Referees Association, according to Yahoo!, has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board, on the grounds that league leaders refuse to negotiate on issues like race, sex, and weight, among others.

And you just know that David Stern is handling this like a mature adult.

The memo and filing to the National Labor Relations Board also includes details of an alleged “obscene expression” by commissioner David Stern directed at union negotiators in a Jan. 24 meeting, referee sources said.

According to the memo, Stern – referred to as “one of the league’s negotiators” – got angry when the union attorneys sought to include what the union called “standard language found in many collective bargaining agreements” on discrimination.

“One of the league’s negotiators reacted to it with hostility and resorted to the use of an obscene expression in describing its effect,” the memo said. “When the NRBA representatives declined his demand to delete the obscene expression from their notes, this negotiator abruptly left the room.”

I want to know what the obscene gesture was. It could have been a throat slash, maybe a dismissive wank. Did he go with old faithful and give the room the double bird? Did he bend one of his underlings over a chair and pantomime sodomy? Or did he just go for the grand slam with the air machine gun hip thrust with one leg on a chair? I only hope that our government doesn’t close down tomorrow so that Congress can get involved.

The basketball team at Indiana has finally found a way to win more games–apparently through bribing the officials. The Hoosiers “welcomed” Division II Ferris State on Monday night. And welcome they did; Ferris led by nine with two minutes to play in regulation, and that’s when the trouble started.

After IU tied it, Ferris State’s Kenny Brown found an open seam to the basket and it looked like he might score a layup for the win. But Oladipo elevated from behind and blocked the shot with 1.4 seconds remaining.

“I got a little stuck on the screen up top and he kind of crossed me over and then he had a wide open lane,” Oladipo said. “But that was just a hustle play. You can never quit on a play. And I saw that he was going to use his left hand. Mo Creek slowed him down a little bit and luckily I got there to make the block.”

But the scrappy Bulldogs weren’t through in regulation. On the inbounds play, Jerrell Sanders seemingly hit a 17-footer at the buzzer over Jeremiah Rivers, but an official review determined the shot had left his hand after time had expired. –Indy Star.

Indiana would win in OT. Of course they would. But did this “review” at the end of regulation involve, you know, visual imagery? Because here’s the screencap from It’s Always Sunny In Detriot and…yep, there’s 0.4 seconds left and that ball is out of Sanders’s hands. So why is the red light on the backboard on? I know Indiana doesn’t honor daylight savings time, but come on. More bad calls from Sunny D.

As the Boston Celtics closed out their Game 2 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, Paul Pierce boldly predicted that the NBA Finals would not return to LA, as he of sparse facial hair implied that Boston would win the next three games at home. Unfortunately, as the Lakers won Game 3, Pierce’s prediction can still come true with LA needing only two more victories, including tonight’s Game 4, to secure a second consecutive NBA championship. And if yesterday’s comments by Doc Rivers and zaftig Alfonso Ribeiro Glen Davis about poor officiating are any indicator, then Phil Jackson needs to start growing an 11th finger.

Rivers complained of inconsistent officiating yesterday, adding that Lakers guard Derek Fisher’s excellent defense on Ray Allen is actually just a lot of flopping. Jackson, on the other hand, said that he just thought Fisher couldn’t ever get set on defense. See? It’s all a matter of perspective. Like, Derek Fisher seemed like he made a layup with three Boston bodies flying at him, but what really happened was that three Celtics bodies allowed a basket while causing a foul. Eye of the beholder, friends.

Throw your hands in the air like you do indeed care, Boston.com Celtics Blog:

Celtics coach Doc Rivers certainly thought the officials were favoring the Lakers last night, calling out the referees for their treatment of Pierce.

“He’d play five minutes, have to go back down, four minutes, have to sit,” said Rivers. “I mean, he wasn’t allowed to play. They didn’t allow him to play tonight.”

Jackson was asked today if he had approached the league about the officiating in this series.

“No, I haven’t,” said Jackson. “To say that in respect, the league also elicits us to itemize things that we wish to be discussed or to be reviewed, be it like that play that happened with Rondo last night where he pulled Lamar’s hand off the ball…”

Zzzzzzzzz… huh? Wha? Sorry, I was taking a nap and didn’t realize the babies woke up. To Davis’ defense, he seems to actually admonish the referees for the difficulty in making split second decisions, admitting that he wouldn’t ever want their job. However, Davis told reporters he was up until 4 a.m. watching game footage and the officiating was so frustrating that he could barely remember to chew between swallowing.

Ray Allen, who failed to make any field goals during all of Game 3, stayed up late to watch game footage as well, adding: “Refs? Oh yeah, all refs. Totally the refs’ fault. Boo those refs!”