The Myth of “Blowing the Game”

The Officials Corner with Henry Bray is brought to by:

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Wisconsin Generators

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July 10th

The Myth of “Blowing the Game”

One of the most common things I hear after a close game is, “The officials blew it.

“Honestly, I understand where that feeling comes from. Emotions are running high. A late call, a missed call, or a controversial decision can stick in everyone’s mind because it happened at a critical moment. But after years of officiating, I’ve learned something important:

Games are seldom decided by one whistle. A game is a long chain of events. It’s made up of turnovers, missed free throws, dropped passes, strikeouts with runners in scoring position, penalties, coaching decisions, and countless moments that happen long before the final seconds. 

Yet somehow, one call near the end gets placed under a giant spotlight while the other two hours of the game fade into the background. 

As officials, we don’t control outcomes. We don’t decide who wins and who loses. Our responsibility is much simpler and much harder at the same time. We apply the rules consistently and make the best decisions we can from the angles and information we have in real time. 

Are we perfect? Absolutely not. 

I’ve walked off fields and courts, replaying situations in my head. I’ve watched film and thought, “I wish I had that one back.” Every official has. Accountability comes with the uniform. We review our work, learn from our mistakes, and try to be better the next time we step onto the field or court. 

But the idea that an official “blew the game” assumes that a single moment exists in isolation, completely separate from everything that happened before it. Sports simply don’t work that way. 

If a basketball team misses ten free throws, if a football team turns the ball over three times, or if a baseball team leaves runners stranded all afternoon, those moments matter too. They’re all pieces of the same puzzle. 

I’ve never officiated a perfect game because perfect games don’t exist. Players make mistakes. Coaches make mistakes. Officials make mistakes. That’s because sports are played by people, and people aren’t perfect. 

The reality is that games are messy. They’re emotional. They’re fast. They’re unpredictable. And honestly, that’s part of what makes sports so great. 

So when someone says, “The officials blew the game,” I usually think about it a little differently. 

More often than not, nobody blew the game. 

It was simply a hard-fought contest filled with hundreds of moments, hundreds of decisions, and hundreds of opportunities that shaped the final score. 

And somewhere in the middle of all of it, one of those moments just happened to involve someone wearing a striped shirt.