THE GOOD KIND OF BLOWN CALL: Dean Juipe in the Las Vegas Sun thinks the ref who made the interference call that kept Ohio State alive in the championship should be getting horsewhipped or something by the media. "To have the result determined by an otherwise obscure man in a striped shirt was bad enough. But it's the fact that there was no post-game, public accountability is what really grates on me." Two things: one, there's no way that game should've ended on that play--the receiver and the defender were tangled up from the get-go and that would be a completely weak way to end a championship. Two, everybody hates Miami; everybody includes the media, and so that's why the ref is off the hook.

Look at this comment: "It may have been Ohio State and Miami playing in the decisive game, yet it was Porter -- as much or more than any Craig Krenzel pass or debilitating injury to Willis McGahee -- who ultimately decided the outcome." This reminds me of a kind of sports fandom that is unlike my own, one where you imagine sports to be this idealized environment where greatness is always conclusively proven--the best team always wins and there are no other factors worth considering. My own fandom--which I would like to think is more sophisticated--involves thinking of sports as a kind of spontaneous or unplanned drama where human factors are everywhere and are, in fact, part of the drama. A game where a ref takes on an active role is just altering the drama or in this case improving it, since that would've been a lousy way to end the game.