For as long as anyone can remember, referees have been hated and criticized for being horrible at their jobs. Especially in higher level leagues such as the NBA and NFL, they shouldn’t be as bad as they are. There are good refs out there, don’t get me wrong, but that is sadly a very low number.

The thing that is even worse is that there is no punishment against these refs for making the horrible calls. According to a 2015 study, a ref will make a mistake once every minute and 44 seconds. That is just absurd. In this article i will give multiple examples of some of the worst calls refs have made throughout history.

Example #1:

James Bradberry of the Philadelphia Eagles was called for holding Kansas City’s JuJu Smith-Schuster. This call was made very late in the fourth quarter, and because of this call, the Chiefs were placed right where they wanted to be, in field goal range, and were also given the first down, so they were able to drain the clock. This call determined the entire outcome of Super Bowl LVII. This was highly debated because, at first glance, it appears that he is holding something, but upon closer inspection, he is not. Bradberry has his hand on him, yes, but in no way, shape, or form was this holding. What makes this even worse is that this play was reviewed!

Example #2:

The game was tied 105-105 with only a couple of seconds left on the clock. LeBron James has the ball and decides to drive for a contested layup. When he goes up, his arm gets smacked by Jayson Tatum. You would think that the ref who was on the sideline would’ve seen this, right? According to the ref, no, it was not a foul. This has to be one of the worst missed calls in NBA history. This play wasn’t even reviewed by the refs. Three NBA-level officials were watching for stuff exactly like this, it is their job to do so, and not even one of them noticed this foul. Since the foul wasn’t called and LeBron didn’t get his free throws, the game went into overtime, and the Celtics ended up winning the game. Ridiculous.

Example #3:

This right here is a picture of Kevin Durant diving to save a ball against the Houston Rockets. You would think that a ref who is less than ten feet away would see this, right? Nope, the ref didn’t. Not even one of them saw this as more than an obvious step that he took out of bounds. The thing that makes this even worse is that this was an extremely close game, and after he saved the ball, the Warriors took the lead. This wasn’t reviewed after the reactions from the Houston fans, coaches, and players. The Warriors won this game because of this poor call.

Example #4:

This is a very famous no-call. This was known as “The Last Shot,” which was the game-winner against the Utah Jazz in Game 6 of the NBA Finals in 1998. It was Jordan’s final bucket as a Chicago Bull. This was a foul. You can quite obviously see that Jordan has a hand on Bryon Russell and that he is pushing him off. This shot changed NBA history, giving Jordan his sixth championship, but this shouldn’t have happened. The refs either ignored this call or were blind. Again, another shot that wasn’t reviewed.