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http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/2010/10/referee-gene-steratore-spoke-to-the-pool-reporter-about-todays-controversial-call-that-was-the-difference-in-score-between-th.html

Yep, he is a Pittsburgh boy.

This is a non-issue.

I agree.  I think that money can be a motivational factor for referee cheating, but other than that, these guys are as impartial as they come.

He owns a business in Pittsburgh. Nuff said.

So your premise is that in order to protect his business in Pittsburgh, this ref had to blatanly give the game to the Steelers, and failure to ensure a Steelers win would have adversely affected his business?

First off the NFL shouldn't let him work games that Pittsburgh is in. Just so there is no doubt ever. Bad move by the NFL to begin with.

Second, YES. That is exactly what I am saying. When in doubt on a close call he probably leans one way in black-n-gold. It's human nature, he might not even know he is doing it.

I'm not blaming him totally for the loss. But it did play a major part of it.

I don't even specifically blame the ref (the man).  It's more a problem with the rule.  Indisputable means that you have to throw all logic out the window. 

If the last time you can see the ball in replay, Dolphins players are all over it, and then after everyone stands up, the Dolphins still have it, I think that it's a reasonable assumption to say that they have possession.  However, the words "indisputable visual evidence" doesn't allow for any assumption, no matter how obvious.

It's gotten to the point if you can't do replay right, why have it at all?! Not to mention the thing teams do where after a questionable play the run to the line to do a quick snap so the play can't be reviewed. Either don't do it at all or do it like college where EVERY play is reviewed upstairs and there can be ump-teen challenges/reviews pers game.

That ref running in from the sideline was so giddy calling  TD then started blowing his whistle he doesn't even know what the F' is happening in front of him. These refs are so quick to make a call they box themselves in.

THIS is exactly why people have a problem with instant replay in the first place.  Because the refs STILL screw it up.  This was a clear cut case that Ben fumbled before crossing the goal line.  That's all that you need to know.  You can all sugar coat it all you want, but the fact is that replay showed he fumbled the ball before crossing the line and Miami came out of the scrum with the ball.  Those are the facts.  How in the world they can claim that replay MUST determine posession of a fumble is beyond me.  Why?  All instant replay needs to determine is whether or not it was a fumble before crossing the line.  Anything beyond that is not needed because it was determined on the field, but the officials and the NFL in their infinite wisdom decided that instant replay has to determine EVERYTHING?  What a load of horse manure.

It's BS like THAT that gives instant replay a bad name.  Just make the damn call in question, all the rest is just BS.

To be fair to the concept of instant replay, it would have been ruled a touchdown had video not intervened.  I still don't see how the side judge called it a TD to begin with without ever seeing the ball cross the plane.

I do not buy your premise that he subconsciously bleeds black and gold.

The concept of instant replay should be to get the call right, not have PROOF that we got the call right.  Logically if there is a fumble and a player gets up off the ground with a football in his hand and hands it to the official then you know who had possession last.  And remember THAT is the key in determining possession, who had it LAST.  It matters not who has it first, but rather who has it when they oncover the bodies.  Ask any NFL player who's been at the bottom of a pile of players fighting for the football and they'll tell you that whomever ends up with it is who recovered the ball.  I don't know how instant replay is EVER going to be able to determine that in a pile up.

And I know everyone is gonna say that players quit fighting for the ball when they heard TD and everyone knows that it's BS.  Players don't quit fighting for the ball when they blow the whistle, why should they quit fighting for the ball when it's called a TD.  If the Steelers could have come out of that pile with the ball, THEY WOULD HAVE.

They need to do it like the NHL does.

Set up a replay headquarters in the main NFL OFFICE in NYC. Where you have 1 guy who's only job in life is to do every replay call of every game. It would have been Mike Pererra but since he left last year, whoever took his job. He is in the office with TV's with every game on it and an army of people from FOX, CBS, (or NBC/ESPN) with the camera shots and every replay angle at his disposal. When a team challenges, the ref goes under the hood and gets on the phone with this guy. The ref at the game has no monitor and looks at no replay.  The guy in NYC makes the final call on EVERY replay from NYC with every tool at his disposal.

The NHL does this and they play a season that goes for over 9 months and they get every replay call right and they have no issues!! For the stinking 16 or 18 weeks, the NFL could easily do this!

And if there happens to be 2 replays at the same exact time then ya just wait your turn in line.  It ain't that much of an issue.

No no no.  They don't need to change a thing, they just need to use the instant replay as it was designed to be used, not how it's being used today.  Today they try to determine EVERYTHING by the replay when a challenge is issued, not just what is being challenged.  If they would have simply used the replay to determine if Ben had fumbled prior to crossing the goal line (which is what Miami was challenging, not who recovered the football), then everything would have been fine.  They've now taken instant replay and made it WORSE than getting the original call wrong in some cases, like this one.

that makes zero sense what you said. If its a "fumble" then you have to determine who has the ball.

What you desscribed is what the REFS did.

The replay doesn't have to determine that if it's already been decided on the field and is not being challenged.  Miami wasn't challenging who recovered the fumble, they were challenging the fact that he fumbled prior to crossing the goal line.  The replay did in fact show he fumbled prior to the goal line.  That's enough to overrule the TD call.  Why does it have to show who recovered the fumble as well?  That's already been determined on the field.  If Pittsburgh wants to challenge who recovered the football, they should be allowed to do that as well, but then if replay doesn't show who recovered the football, you lose the challenge.

but the refs never ruled Miami recovered the ball. They didn't even look nor pay any attention. A ref has to signal that someone recovered the ball for Pitt to challenge it

Incorrect. You can clearly see two of them are digging in the pile.

(http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/thedailydolphin/files/2010/10/fumble-500x281.jpg)

They didn't "officially" signal it because it had been ruled a TD and not a fumble, but the refs on the field did tell the Miami players they had recovered.  They took the ball from the Miami player and told the players that they had recovered, but that it had been ruled a TD before the fumble so it didn't matter who recovered.  Once the play was challenged according to instant replay rules you have to be able to see who recovered in the replay, but I don't see why you shouldn't be able to use what the refs ruled on the field as far as the recovery goes.  Go read the comments from the players after the game, several of them stated that the refs on the field stated the ball was recovered by Miami.  And even if the refs wouldn't have said that Miami recovered on the field, from the replay you can see that Miami came out of the pile with the football.  There's OVERWHELMING evidence that they got the call wrong. 

What this shows is that the refs made two bad calls. First they called a td, then they blew the whistle ending the possibility to establish possesion of the ball.
The crew could not have screwed the pooch anymore if they tried.

The referee crew that BLEW the Big Ben fumble call vs Miami..........yesterday they didn't work a game. The NFL gave them an "unplanned" week off.

Go figure!!

and this week they sent Gene to Canada!!!

Don't tell me this guy isn't paying for his sin

So friggin what it does not help we should be 5-3 instead of 4-4 and that one game will probably cost us a playoff spot sending them to Canada does not do crap for us!!!!

That one game won't cost us anything. Miami is not a good football team and can't play against the elite teams in this league

I'd much rather be in Toronto than Buffalo anytime.  Doesn't sound like much of a punishment to me.