Columnist Dean Juipe: Media let blown call slide by

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2003 | 9:20 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Given the circumstances, the stakes and the potentially volatile surroundings, Terry Porter got off easy. Real easy.

A little too easy for my tastes.

Porter, after all, is the guy who determined college football's national championship this season. 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.

He did it with a pomposity and brazenness usually reserved by heads of state. He did it by injecting himself into circumstances where he arguably didn't belong.

Porter was the field judge in last Friday's Fiesta Bowl and he was the man who came across the end zone to throw a delayed flag and overrule a fellow official (who was right on the spot) on what should have been the game's final play.

Who says there's no instant replay in college football? Porter said he made the call he did -- interference against Miami defensive back Glenn Sharpe on a fourth-down pass intended for Chris Gamble -- after "rerunning the play" in his mind and deciding a flag was due.

A full three seconds elapsed between the end of the play and Porter tossing his hanky.

When he did, a game that Miami thought it had won (by a 24-17 score in one overtime) and a championship it had begun celebrating suddenly was taken from the Hurricanes. Instead of being over, the game resumed with Ohio State given a first down at the Miami one-yard line and a single play later the Buckeyes scored, which, after the extra point, extended the contest to a second overtime.

Ohio State won in two overtimes, 31-24, and Porter slunk away with little more than a cursory explanation.

The national media covering the game was shepherded from Porter and, seemingly, made little effort to investigate this man, how he came to be selected to officiate this game, and what repercussions he may potentially face for making such a crucial call at such a delicate time.

This wasn't just some run-of-the-mill game in the middle of the season between Northwestern and Ball State. It was for the national championship and, as millions of TV viewers can testify, the game itself was wonderfully played and tremendously entertaining.

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.

Not that Porter did anything illegal or was in on any kind of fix. If anything, the only complaint that can be lodged against him has little to do with anything but incompetence.

Credit the Miami coach, Larry Coker, for keeping his emotions and those of his team as they relate to Porter out of the public eye. In what has to be regarded as a terrific example of good sportsmanship, neither Coker nor his players have belittled Porter or spouted off about him in a public setting.

So I'll do it for them.

Porter made a bad call, as the TV analyst emphasized, at an extremely inappropriate time. He thrust himself into a situation where he overruled a colleague and all but exceeded his authority.

He made a mistake, and the media compounded it by letting him off the hook.