These Illinois Refs Should Be in Prison After Allowing a Fifth Down That Changed the Result of a Playoff Game

We had shades of 1990 Colorado-Missouri in Petersburg, Ill. this past weekend during the first round of the IHSA football playoffs after the officiating crew made one of the most egregious game-altering blunders you'll ever see.

Porta High School trailed Fairfield 8-6 with less than a minute to go, but had the ball in field goal range. The Blue Jays spiked the ball on first down to stop the clock with 23 seconds left. They then ran the ball on second down to make the field goal attempt a little bit closer before presumably meaning to spike it again on third down and then kick. Unfortunately for Porta, its quarterback got confused and took a knee on third down. He then snapped the ball again on fourth down and spiked it in an attempt to stop the clock, which may have already run out anyway, according to the announcers in the clip. So Fairfield had won the game in two different ways.

Somehow, though, none of the officials seemed to notice Porta had already run four plays. The down marker operator didn't change from third to fourth until after the fourth down play had already been run, but surely someone in a striped shirt knew how many plays there had been. And even if they didn't, I have to assume the Fairfield players and coaches were losing their damn minds.

Nevertheless, time was put back on the clock and Porta went out there and nailed the most undeserved field goal of all-time.

The IHSA also apparently has a rule that any decisions made by officials are not subject to any sort of protest or review, so Fairfield High School is simply shit out of luck.

Insanity. I asked Rico Bosco what he thinks should happen to these officials and his response wasn't even suitable to be printed. Those guys simply can't be allowed to officiate a football game ever again.

To Porta's credit, the school released a statement acknowledging they should have lost the game and regretted the circumstances under which they advanced. Those guys are in an unenviable situation, too, but a break went their way and they took advantage of it.

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Fire those officials into the Sun, man. I'll forgive you for a bad call, but you have to be able to count to four.