You know you've done a poor officiating job when your call is overturned by a 3-year-old. In a video clip being shown all over the country, has been featured on CNN's website since Wednesday (Jan. 2), and is going viral on YouTube, an adorable child points out the obvious mistake of a referee in the BCS Outback Bowl.
For those watching the Outback Bowl between Michigan and South Carolina, even diehard Wolverines fans couldn't believe their eyes when referee Jeff Maconaghy motioned a Michigan first down during a measurement that clearly showed the ball inches away from the yard-stick. A video was soon posted to YouTube showing a 3-year-old with a massive fro explaining what was wrong with the call, pointing to the frozen image on a large screen television of the football in question resting a couple inches from the measurement stick that was supposed to mark the threshold for the first down.
"The referee said it's touching that pole, but it's really not," she says, using a pencil as a pointer.
After going over the situation better than most ESPN analysts, the videotaping father asks the 3-year-old if she's sure of her analysis. "It's close but is it touching it?"
"No," the child insists. "Look." She gets right up to the screen and the frozen football image to point out what should be obvious. "Look."
To add insult to injury for the Outback Bowl official, another child, apparently already displaying a firm grasp of sarcasm, comments, "Hey, Mr. Pole, the football's supposed to be touching you," the little girl says into a telephone. "What has happened? The football's not touching you, and it's helping the team we were not acting for."
But these little South Carolina Gamecocks fans didn't have too much to worry about. South Carolina went on to win the game, 33-28.
Where were these girls when we needed them for the Ravens vs. Patriots game early in the 2012 NFL season when that football seemed to be inches outside the goalposts in what was deemed a game-winner for Baltimore? And those substitute officials in Green Bay's heartbreaking third week loss (oddly enough, the same week as the Ravens-Patriots miscue) to the Seattle Seahawks on a controversial call could have used these kids as well.
Now, who's for seeing these girls hired as color commentators for one of the networks?
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