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Health & Fitness

Blog: Some Games in Pro Sports Are Heavily Influenced, Negatively by Officials

Corrupt officiating at pro football and basketball games.

Friday night I was watching the NBA game between the visiting Chicago Bulls and the Boston Celtics, when something occurred that bothered me.

Boston was ahead by two points and was about to inbound the ball with 12 seconds left in the game.

The ball went to Paul Pierce of the Celtics who was immediately fouled several times by Chicago Bull, Carlos Boozer. No foul was called.

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Then the Bulls center, Noah, touched the ball and the officials immediately called a held ball. At 6'8", Pierce was no match for the Bulls 7 foot center, who controlled the jump.  Chicago went down court and tied the game, which they went on to win in overtime.

All three announcers commented on the fact that no foul was called against Boozer. Everyone in the Boston Garden saw the foul; I was three thousand miles away and even I saw the foul, but the officials did not make a very obvious call.

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This leads me to believe that some games in pro sports are heavily influenced, negatively by the officials. The outcome is not always predetermined, but the outcome is indeed occasionally influenced; either by a non-call or a bad call.

I have seen this happen in pro football as well. In one game I watched, Team A was driving towards a game tying field goal. The QB dropped back to pass and was hit in the head by a defender.  That should have been an automatic penalty, but the official standing fifteen feet away made no call.  Team A lost the game, at least partially due to that non-call.

So what do we, the fans do? We can write to the league and protest.  We can stop buying the stuff the league sells at team stores, and we can stop watching the TV broadcasts of the games.

The important thing is to let the league know we care and do not like what is happening and top tell them that we will protest and how. If we do not act somehow, the sports we love will be destroyed by corrupt officials.

Finally, yesterday I got a copy of the Celtics newsletter, in which it was mentioned that Celtics coach, Doc Rivers, was sending a video of the jump ball and  non-call to NBA officials.

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