OverTime: So, Sometimes It's One Call, That's All.

Photo courtesy of The New York Times.

Before I begin - a few words. For the duration of this article I'm going to hang my Hawks hat and close the closet on my Falcons jersey. I'm going to - for the sake of moral integrity - be slightly more objective. These are merely my thoughts as a sports enthusiast, not as an Atlanta fan. That being said...

The Saints should have won the Super Bowl in Atlanta. And they probably would have if it weren't for one of the most egregious calls in sports history. 

With less than two minutes left in the 2019 NFC Championship Game between the Los Angeles Rams and the New Orleans Saints, the score was tied 20-20. The Saints were at 3rd and 10 with only 13 yards between the ball and their end zone. The ball snapped to Drew Brees, who let it fly Tommylee Lewis on the right wing. But when Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman hit Lewis before the ball did, it seemed almost assured there would be a flag. I mean, there'd been a pass interference call only moments earlier, and this was a much clearer case. Just look at the picture above. The ball is no where near Lewis, Robey-Coleman is clearly making contact with him, and there is a ref standing only a few yards away. The flags were bound to come.

And yet, they didn't. There was no pass interference call. The Saints were forced to take a field goal, which they made, and with enough time on the clock for the Rams to work the ball up most of the field, LA was able to tie the game again before the end of regulation. The Rams then went on to win it by 3 in overtime, and lose to the New England Patriots in one of the most underwhelming Super Bowls of all time. Had that call, that clear pass interference, not been missed the Saints would have almost definitely won the game in regulation, and there is a very good chance the Lombardi Trophy would be proudly displayed in New Orleans right now, instead of Boston. 

Of course, pinning a loss (or a win for that matter) on the blow of a whistle is always tricky business. It suddenly discounts the rest of the game and ignores the glaring reality that bad calls are made all the time, from the first seconds of a game to the last. But sometimes, just sometimes, there are calls that are so bad in such important moments of a game they, themselves, become the most important play of the game. 

Sure, New Orleans could have won that game in overtime. But the fact of the matter is, there never should have been an overtime. If the refs had thrown a flag, the Saints would have been given 1st down 6 yards from the end zone, and with 4 opportunities to make that touchdown, there's no telling what would have happened. Best case scenario, the Saints make a touchdown. Worst case scenario, they burn the clock with 3 failed attempts at a touchdown and then send on Will Lutz (one of the NFL's best kickers) to score a field goal, putting the Saints up and leaving the Rams with nowhere near enough time to tie the game. Overtime is not a given. It's a gift.

And these bad calls are not exclusive to the NFL. Even within the last 12 months, I can count multiple missed or bad calls that would have swayed both MLB and NBA games. Take for example, the LeBron James goaltend in Game 5 of the First Round in last year's playoffs. It was a game that his Cleveland Cavaliers ended up winning by 3 points, in a series that ended up going to all 7 games. It was a monumental win for James, and much like the NFC Championship Game it swayed the outcome of a league championship. So, allow me to set the stage.

It's Game 5 of the First Round, the Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers are tied in the Series 2-2, and there's less than 10 seconds on the clock in Cleveland. The score is tied 95-95. It's been a thrilling game, especially following the scrappy Game 4 win that James and the Cavs were able to pull out only a few days earlier in Indiana, and here we are at the end of yet another scrappy game between the Eastern Conference's fourth and fifth seeds. Victor Oladipo, the Pacers' knight in shining armor (who would go along to win Most Improved Player of the Year later that summer), brings the ball up the court as the clock ticks into single digits. He knows that if the Pacers win this game, they can close out the series in Indiana later that week, sending the King packing and advancing the league's brightest underdog to the Eastern Conference Semifinals. 

So, Victor fakes a side step on James, instead ducking to his left. Oladipo has an open lane to the basket for a game winning lay-up, and as he takes the shot, James, now back peddling behind Vic, jumps up and blocks the shot off the backboard. The loose ball is recovered by J.R. Smith, who promptly calls a timeout for the Cavaliers. And with 3 seconds left on the clock, and a timeout that allowed the Cavs to inbound the ball from the top of their arc, James is able to pull the trigger on a buzzer beater 3 that wins the game. It's a spectacular finish, and it highlighted what makes the King the King.

But there's one problem with that whole narrative. The block that gave the Cavs possession and ultimately won them the game wasn't actually a block at all. It was a goaltend. Victor's lay-up had already made contact with the backboard when James swatted it down. Had the referees called it right, the bucket would have counted for Indiana. The Pacers would be up by 2, the Cavaliers would have to inbound the ball from the other side of the court rather than the top of their arc, and with nearly no time on the clock, James' well drawn-up 3 isn't set, and you have a mid-court buzzer beater attempt instead. If the goaltend were called in the moment, it is almost a 100% certainty that the Pacers would have left Quicken Loans Arena with a 3-2 lead in the series.

The worst part - much like how underwhelming the Super Bowl was this year - is that (of course) the Pacers blew the doors off the Cavaliers in Game 6 back home in Indiana. The final score was 121-87. It wasn't even close. If the "block" in Game 5 had been rightly called, something LeBron even acknowledged after the game (quote "I definitely thought it was a goaltend"), the Pacers would have won the series in 6 games. And instead of a fourth Cavs-Warriors match-up in the NBA Finals, we likely would have seen a competitive series between Golden State and the Boston Celtics or Toronto Raptors (the other 2 teams LeBron defeated on his way to the Finals). 

This is all to say that every call matters, and sometimes, whether we like to believe it or not, whole championship runs can be pinned on a single missed call. Of course, there are hours of playing that go on before and after these calls. Focusing on a bad call does not negate that playing time. It isn't lazy or misguided to focus on a missed whistle. Rather, it is naive to think that said missed whistles don't hold the weight they do. LeBron James should not have made it out of the First Round last season, and (despite every ounce of Atlanta pride I have telling me otherwise) it should have been the Saints in the Super Bowl last year.

I know, some of you are thinking, "Todd, you're oversimplifying. Calls are subjective. There's still the rest of the game. Teams shouldn't leave themselves open to having a single call determine the outcome." To which I respond, the best games are the ones that are close. Unfortunately, the best games are the ones where a single call can determine the outcome. And while calls are subjective in the moment, both the NFL and NBA doubled back on those calls. They acknowledged their significance and how egregious they were. In fact, just this week the NFL changed the pass interference rules, so as to prevent the Saints-Rams debacle from ever occurring again.

Yes, the players play the game. They live and breath and die by what they do on the field and on the court. The outcome is theirs to take responsibility for. This is all true. Yet, there is another parallel truth, and that's the reality that a silent whistle or a pocketed flag can seriously sway the outcome of some of sport' most important moments.

And yeah, unfortunately at the end of the day it's the teams (and the fans) that have to live with the outcome. But for just a brief moment, it's the referees that help determine it.