KTBS 3 News | Shreveport, LA: ArkLaTex News

Created: November 8, 2009 8:43 AM
Updated: November 8, 2009 8:43 AM

You know it's bad when Bernie Madoff feels sorry for a collection of folks. Yes, it appears someone, or more correctly---a group of someones, is more loathed and despised by a faction of the country more than the bilker of millions. Ask college football fans from Fayetteville to Nashville to Athens to Gainesville to now, Baton Rouge their opinion of SEC Referee's. Just make sure you have your Kevlar on and a canister of pepper spray nearby.

Last night in Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium, Moe, Larry, Curly, Jethroj Bodine, Maxwell Smart, Paula Abdul and Jim Kramer wore the striped shirts, the whistles, the nifty white knickers, black adidas... everything associated with being an official. LSU fans will tell you, the crew also had that intangible characteristic that makes an officiating crew an SEC Crew. A rock-solid, easy to grip screwdriver.

With Alabama trying to salt away the game, leading 21-15 with nearly seven minutes to play, Tide quarterback Greg McElroy rolled right. He cocked his throwing arm. He fired a bullet toward Julio Jones near the Tigers sideline. A funny thing happened to that piercing pigskin---LSU cornerback, Patrick Petrson interrupted it's scheduled flight, picking off the pass before hurtling into the awaiting arms of his joyous teammates.

Wait. Just. One. Dog-nabbed minute. Here comes Jethro from ten yards downfield. Paula is sprinting over from upfield. They collaborate. Except they would use a simpler term, like... meet. Quick discussion... and... "incomplete" is the signal. Really? Looked to me, from my angle down the sideline just beyond the LSU end zone, that Peterson placed both feet inbounds and had control of the ball before going out of bounds. To the replay booth the call would go. A photog buddy, Bobby-O of WGNO started pushing buttons on his camera. Next thing we know, we are huddling around Bobby O's color LCD display we has stopped the video at the instant Peterson made the catch. Lo and behold, this simple assemblage of men---commonly referred to as "photogs"---was able to surmise that Peterson had posssession of the ball and both feet inbounds. This was so clear to me that I started to make the trek to the other end of the field in anticipation of LSU's newfound possession. Surely, this wouldn't take long, since we were able to deduce the outcome in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately for the Tigers and their fans, it DIDN'T take long enough. The replay official, who obviously stayed someplace other than a Holiday Inn Express the night before, deduced his cronies down on the field were absolutely, positively correct.

And with that decision, LSU's shot at coming back to win was gone. As Les Miles said afterward, the Tigers would still have had 69 yards to navigate in order to produce a go-ahead touchdown---but he and his team would have welcomed that chance.

After the game, while editing the pieces we fed back to KTBS (thanks to our friends at WWL-TV), my shot of the play also clearly indicated Peterson made a catch, had both feet inbounds and regained possession while going out of bounds. Peterson and defensive teammate Kelvin Sheppard echoed similar sentiments in the cramped interview room 30 minutes after the game... 'couldn't turn back time,' and 'what's done is done.'

Isn't it a shame, for several SEC teams this season, that Father Time would have made a better back judge than the gents trotted out each and every Saturday by the conference?