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NFL referees often get mocked or ridiculed for one thing or another.
They blow a big call in a big game. Or they get knocked to the turf by a running back or receiver who doesn’t see them, and they can’t get out of the way in time. Or they point the wrong way when making a penalty call.
All of that has happened many times before and will happen many times again. But what happened late in the 1st quarter of Sunday’s game between the Buffalo Bills and host Houston Texans probably has never happened before, or at least it should never happen again. The referee seemed to forget that he was officiating an, um, NFL game in early October and not some college basketball game in January.
The referee makes the call and refers to the runner not fumbling “the basketball.” The funniest part of the whole ordeal might be how he says “basketball” and then goes right on saying that the “football” will be spotted at the 39-yard line.
Here’s a clip:
So close, buddy, but the basketball is round and the football is oblong 😂 pic.twitter.com/tqwfg2L1MK
— Adam Spencer (@AdamSpencer4) October 6, 2024
In this case, the official is longtime NFL referee Clay Martin. Ironically, Martin is a former head basketball coach at Jenks High School near Tulsa, Oklahoma. He served in that role from 2003-15 and then again from 2017-22.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
