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MIAMI, FL — An NFL game almost became watchable today, but was saved at the last moment by veteran referee John Ross. "Not on my watch," said Ross as he strode to midfield with his fellow referees, aimlessly launching a flag. "Now let's stand here and make hand gestures to each other for a couple minutes until all the momentum and excitement has left the building." Before the incident, the game between the Dolphins and Patriots had been going along as usual, with inane penalties and countless delays sucking all the life out the atmosphere. "Somehow, right in the middle...

Following his controversial performance officiating Argentina’s quarterfinal win over the Netherlands on Friday, Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz was reportedly removed from the 2022 World Cup and will not work any of the tournament’s remaining four games. The Spanish referee, who works in Spain’s La Liga, has already left Qatar, according to Spanish outlet COPE. The VAR (video assistant replay) referees were not punished, however, and will be given the options to work in the remaining matches. Both teams were enraged with Lahoz throughout the match, which saw Argentina blow a late 2-0 lead before rallying to win in penalties. Lahoz...

Mills Lane, the legendary boxing referee famous for using the phrase “Let’s get it on,” has died at 85 years old. Lane’s son, Tommy, told the Reno Gazette Journal that his father, who suffered a stroke 20 years ago, had been in hospice for the last week. “He took a significant decline in his overall situation,” Tommy Lane told the outlet. “It was a quick departure. He was comfortable and he was surrounded by his family.”

"I’m being very careful here because I’m getting real close to a fine." Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones may find himself in hot water with the NFL after wearing a blind referee costume with glasses and a cane for Halloween. The NFL usually doesn’t take too kindly to jokes by NFL team officials or players at the expense of referees. When asked by a reporter why he wore that costume over the weekend, Jones didn’t seem to take it too seriously. In fact, he said imitation is the highest form of flattery. “I had a lot of fun,” he said....

Being an NBA referee is a harder job than many people think, no matter how many fans believe they could do a better job or that their "grandma could have made a better call." They can be a team's hero or their greatest nightmare, depending on the night's call. An NBA referee needs to be confident, stern, smart, and aware to make a call in a high-pressure environment with 20,000 fans cheering or booing at them. An underrated aspect of a referee is the physical fitness that they need to maintain during a game. Refs need to run up and...

TAMPA, FL—Sarah Thomas, the first female referee to officiate in a Super Bowl, threw a flag on a play in the second quarter but refused to say what was wrong."Penalty, on the offense -- you know what, never mind. It's fine," she said after throwing a flag on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers."Wait -- what'd I do wrong?" asked Tom Brady indignantly."Nothing. I said it was fine," she said, folding her arms."It doesn't seem like it's fine. You threw a flag!" Brady responded.She shrugged and turned away. "No, it's totally fine. Go and play football with your friends. It's fine."Play proceeded...

A Texas high school football player was escorted out of the stadium in dramatic fashion by police after he hit a referee – checking him at full speed and sending him to the ground. The 58-year-old referee got up on his own but was taken to an ambulance outside the stadium gates. There he was evaluated for symptoms of a concussion and a possible shoulder injury.

BUENA, N.J. -- A New Jersey school district says its wrestling team will no longer compete in events officiated by a referee who told a wrestler to lose his dreadlocks or forfeit his bout. The announcement came during an emergency meeting held Wednesday with the Buena Regional school board and members of the community. The groups that assign referees have already said they wouldn't assign the ref until further notice. Buena Regional High School wrestler Andrew Johnson had his dreadlocks cut minutes before his match on Dec. 19. Johnson, who is black, had a cover over his hair, but referee...

This is a story about love and betrayal. Andrea Barone was barely 18 months old when he first set out on the ice, his tiny legs shaking and pushing behind a chair along the cold surface. If, in Montreal, hockey is religion, then this was baptism by ritual, every morning practice, every unsteady drag of his skates drawing him closer to the game he was falling for. .... Barone is sure of two things about himself: He is a hockey man, and he is a gay man. In the sport he has devoted his life to, this has proved an...

Video at link. Yesterday we saw USC left tackle Chuma Edoga get himself ejected from a game against Utah State after getting a little bit too physical with a ref during the heat of the moment, but this video from the junior college ranks is even worse. Mt. San Antonio offensive lineman Bernard Schirmer took unsportsmanlike conduct to the next level when he allegedly punched a ref while being restrained, knocking the ref to the ground and later being taken away in handcuffs by local authorities. He was charged with suspicion of battery.

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) - Calgary Flames defenseman Dennis Wideman sent linesman Don Henderson to the ice when he checked him from behind during a game against the Nashville Predators. In the second period Wednesday night, Wideman was skating toward the Flames' bench when he cross-checked Henderson, who had his back to the defenseman. Moments earlier, Wideman had taken a hit from the Predators' Miikka Salomaki. Wideman said after the game that his hit to Henderson was unintentional. "I took a pretty hard hit down in the corner and had some pretty good pain in my shoulder and my neck and...

Mack Breed, the former assistant football coach for John Jay High School in San Antonio, pleaded guilty to assault for the hit on a referee by Jay players during a football game in September in Marble Falls... Breed was sentenced to 12 months in the Burnet County Jail and fined $3,500. The sentence was suspended, however, and Breed was placed on probation for 18 months. As part of the plea agreement, Breed was also required to permanently surrender his Texas teaching certificate, complete an anger management program, perform 120 hours of community service, and pay restitution to Watts.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Sarah Thomas saw the New York City area code pop up on her phone and started praying it was the NFL calling to say she'd been hired as a full-time game official.Not because that would make her the first woman to hold the job. Her hopes were those of any longtime official on the cusp of working at the sport's pinnacle.

The unapproved kicking ball that sources told "Outside the Lines" that a Gillette Stadium officials' locker room attendant tried to introduce into the AFC Championship Game was handed to the man by an NFL employee, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Wednesday.

Earlier Wednesday Mike Ditka made the news with his brash comments in favor of the Washington Redskins keeping their controversial nickname.. Now it's time to meet his polar opposite, at least as far as this issue is concerned. Mike Carey, a recently hired rules analyst for CBS Sports, spent 19 seasons as an NFL referee but did not officiate a Redskins game for nearly all of the last eight years of his career. That was by request — because he disapproves of their name.

One man has been arrested on suspicion of decapitating a referee at an amateur football match in Brazil. The referee was supposedly quartered and then had his head cut off before it was stuck on a stake. This shocking act of violence was in retaliation after he “stabbed” one of the players on the pitch in the Pius XII stadium, Maranhao. …

Monday's debacle only crystallizes what was already clear: NFL's substitute officials are a joke, and it's time for Commissioner Roger Goodell to end lockout.Hail Mary. Holy hell. On the final play of the final game of one of the most shameful weekends in NFL history, a last-gasp pass from the Seattle Seahawks fell from the sky into the arms of the Green Bay Packers on Monday night. Touchdown, Seattle. Chaos, NFL. Three weeks of gross incompetence by unqualified replacement officials crystallized in two moments Monday night that pushed the league's integrity to the brink. In one moment, Packers safety M.D....

LOS ANGELES — A professional tennis referee from Los Angeles was arrested Tuesday in New York City on a felony warrant charging her with killing her elderly husband in April. Prosecutors said 70-year-old Lois Ann Goodman, a longtime top referee on the tennis circuit, was taken into custody as she prepared to work at the U.S. Open tournament.

Shannon Eastin will become the first female to officiate an NFL game when she works the Green Bay at San Diego preseason match Thursday night. The regular NFL officials have been locked out by the league. Eastin is a college referee who has worked in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (FCS division).

In one of the most disturbing youth sports incidents in recent years, coaches of a Sarasota, Florida youth football team instigated a brawl with a referee which eventually led to both the coaching staff and a player violently attacking the referee in question during a massive brawl which embroiled both teams. As reported by Sarasota Patch, quickly followed by a variety of Tampa Bay news outlets, details of the incident were first gleaned from an amateur video ofa game involving the Sarasota Gators and North Port Huskies on Saturday. The video in question was eventually turned over to the Sarasota...