Next, more uproar erupted in the 1998 playoffs when an official missed wide receiver Jerry Rice's fumble, which would have ended what turned into the 49ers' game-winning drive against the Packers. Rick Reilly declares:Look, officiating in the NFL during the 1990s isn’t easy. Most of the time it’s like standing on the side of a freeway trying to ID the vegetable stuck between the incisors of a woman in a passing Ferrari. Even if the league goes to younger refs (it should) and full-time refs (it should), the job will still be a bitch. Why, then, do we let every man, woman, and child in America have instant replay except the people who need it most (Reilly 114)!?!Also, the New England Patriots benefited from back-to-back controversial calls at the close of a significant game last year. Trailing 21-17 with 11 seconds remaining, they had a fourth down and nine yards to go for a first down when quarterback Drew Bledsoe threw a pass to receiver Shawn Jefferson on the sideline. Replays appeared to show that Jefferson had failed to come down with either foot in bounds, though by rule he needed to land both of them. He also appeared short of the first down. Either way, the Bills could have run out the game's last six seconds.But, given a first down, the Patriots took one shot at the end zone in a prayer of a pass known as the "Hail Mary." The principles of the "Hail Mary" are quite simple: everyone crowds into one corner of the end zone as the quarterback lofts a pass and hopes for the best. Usually it is deflected incomplete. Sometimes it is intercepted. On rare occasions is it caught for a touchdown. Almost never is the defense called for pass interference. But that is what happened this time. The Patriots receive an automatic first down at the one-yard line and go on to score the game-winning touchdown with no time remaining on the clock. "'I think all the officials are honest people,' said George Young, the NFL's ...
