Tom Barrabi

If you're a Detroit Lions fan who is still desperately trying to forget about the team's dismal 2012 season, you should probably avoid the squad's official calender.

Read More|Comment

Sitting courtside at an NBA game is considered one of the true thrills of sports fandom. At the same time, parking your rump just a few feet away from the world's largest, fastest athletes does come with a certain amount of risk

Read More|Comment

At this time last year, NBA fans were facing the very real possibility of a canceled NBA season. This year, the league is gearing up for one of its most anticipated campaigns in recent memory. The 2012-13 NBA season starts tonight, with three games on tap: Wizards-Cavaliers at 7 p.m. (ET), Heat-Celtics at 8, and Mavericks-Lakers at 10:30.

Read More|Comment

By now, even non-football fans have heard about the officiating debacle in the showdown between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks (just check your Facebook feed). Facing a 12-7 deficit with just seconds left to play, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson rolled out of the pocket and threw a desperation heave into the end zone, resulting in a game-clinching interception for the Packers.

Except it wasn't. Instead, the NFL's much-maligned replacement officials inexplicably ruled the play a touchdown for the Seahawks, ignoring an obvious offensive pass-interference penalty and cementing the phrase "simultaneous catch" into the lexicon of poor sports officiating.

This screw-up will, hopefully, lead to the return of the real refs—but let's not forget that they too have made their share of awful calls over the years. Here's a look at some of the NFL's most controversial officiating decisions:

Read More|Comment

Think back to your days on the 8th grade football team. If you’re like us, you sat on the bench daydreaming about girls while the man-child that could already grow a beard ran sideline to sideline and crushed anyone in his path.

Read More|Comment

The beauty of fantasy football is that owners can ignore such petty issues as referee-union disputes and terrible replacement-official calls.

Read More|Comment

As you may have heard, hobos and miscreants are in charge of refereeing NFL games now! Or, rather, the NFL has decided to use high school referees as replacements while it negotiates with the actual referees' union, which has led to the occasional minor controversy. And while Monday's night's disastrous ending to the Packers-Seahawks game is probably the pinnacle (or nadir) of this sad saga, there were already plenty of questionable, puzzling and downright infuriating officiating decisions leading up to it.

Let's have a look, shall we?

Read More|Comment

What do you get when you combine highly competitive sports figures and post-game press conferences? Pure viewing magic.

Read More|Comment

For the professional athlete, there isn’t a single tool in the arsenal as useful as high-quality facial hair.

Read More|Comment

Will they go down in history as heroes, or choke when it matters most? Many of the most rewarding moments in professional sports are borne from last-second heroics.

Read More|Comment