Unless you entered a celebratory coma or have been hiding under a rock since Oregon’s dramatic 34-33 come-from-behind victory last week against Oklahoma, you are well aware of the controversy that stemmed from a blown call and phantom recovery of a critical onside kick late in the game that led to the Ducks’ game-winning touchdown.
You likely know all this because the national media refuse to let it go.
A week later, that small sequence of events, which accounted for roughly six seconds of a 60-minute game, lingers and has led to more national media coverage than Oregon has received in a very long time. It’s unfortunate that it takes a controversy to finally thrust the Ducks into the national spotlight.
The call was mentioned in numerous televised games last Saturday. Even the Associated Press story on Oklahoma’s overwhelming win against Middle Tennessee led with, “Oklahoma left nothing to the replay officials this time.”
And it’s had quite the ripple effect as well. The officiating crew was suspended one game, the Pac-10’s replay system, ironically, was reviewed, and an apology was issued to the Sooners by the conference after Oklahoma University President David Boren deemed the call an “outrageous injustice” in a letter. Boren also demanded that the game be wiped away from the record books, which calls into question his priorities as the president of a major university with more than 19,000 students.
But it got worse than that.
Replay official Gordon Riese, a Portland native, reviewed the play in the booth but was apparently not offered the same angles available to those watching on television. His film was inconclusive, and he made the wrong call. Riese quickly became the victim of a death threat and his family fears for his health following what is now being termed as “Replaygate.”
The unfortunate aspect about the entire fiasco is that it overshadowed a truly great game played by both teams.
No matter your opinions – Oregon fans argue that it wasn’t the officials who let the Ducks score two late touchdowns and Oklahoma fans, well, it’s obvious what they think – that single call will define both team’s seasons.
For Oregon, it’ll be a lingering asterisk no matter how they finish. Just imagine what the lead-in will be for Saturday’s game on ABC against Arizona State. This is not something that’s going to subside any time soon, and that’s troubling because the Ducks still posted 34 points against a very good Sooners defense.
Opposing fans will now have more ammunition than the redundant slams on Oregon’s uniforms. A friend of mine received a message after the Oklahoma game from a Washington State student she knows, saying, “dinner is on me when you come to Pullman, since you spent all your money paying off the referees.”
Similarly for Oklahoma, this is one game that everyone will talk about whether the Sooners go 11-1 (you can imagine the firestorm there) or 5-7, considering they should have been 3-0 with a big road victory, and you just never know after that.
While Oregon will certainly take the “win”, it’s one that is truly going to haunt this team and the Sooners for the entire season.
And that’s unfortunate considering the play was out of the control of both teams.
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