10 Ridiculous Refereeing Decisions That Almost Ruined NFL

4. The Bert Emanuel Rule

bert-emanuel This one stings for the defensive-minded souls. For most football fans, the 1999 NFC championship game was the classic argument of offense vs. defense come to life. The "Greatest Show on Turf," scoring at will without even thinking about it. And the Buccaneers, the mean defensive struggles that just wanted to pound you into the ground. Can a great defense can destroy a dominant offense? One of the greatest debates in American Football...decided by a guy looking at a camera. Trailing 11-6 with 47 seconds to go, the Bucs' Bert Emanuel makes a solid thirteen-yard catch to keep the drive going...until for some reason the refs decided to have another look. While Emanuel clearly had control of the ball the entire time, under the rules if the ball even grazes the ground it's an incomplete. The Buccaneers wouldn't score another point. This is especially heartbreaking for Tampa fans. For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, this was their first real chance ever to change a legacy. The Bucs are no longer possibly the worst franchise in history, they have beaten the "Greatest Show on Turf". Think again. The worst part about this call is that the rules were changed the very next year, making the catch legitimate if it were just one year later. To make the sting even worse, it became known as the "Bert Emanuel Rule".
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A recent graduate of Saint Anselm College, Jack is a playwright, fiction author and contributing writer to whatculture.com. An avid fan of theater, movies and the medium that is comic books, Jack is an award-winning lover of the English language.