Those Annoying Yahoos

With all the excitement over dreams dying and prophecies self-fulfilled this past weekend, many of us Trojans in the blogosphere neglected to comment about the Yahoo! Sports report citing two erroneous calls by referees in last season’s Rose Bowl … or maybe we just ignored it.

According to the report, the bad calls – which could have affected the outcome of the game, supposedly – were not overturned because the bozos in charge didn't know how to properly use their new fangled equipment. Gee, thanks for the tip.

No reason to hit the details, since we know it doesn’t matter, but wouldn’t you think those Yahoos could find some other exclusive news to break in their continued sorry attempt to make a name for themselves? Of course, the story isn’t really “news” (the outcome of the game won’t be changed) and it really wasn’t “exclusive” (since the AP posted the same info at about the same time.)

Still, it’s disturbing to USC Trojans nonetheless. But just as I sat down to write a Displaced post, I discovered that what I had in my brain was already written, plus or minus a few phrases with a little less irreverence and more sarcasm. I’m not much at all for deferring comment about anything concerning USC to non-Trojan parties, but I have to admit, the guy(s) at Deadspin got it just about right.

Yahoo! Sports, seemingly dedicated to the sole pursuit of torturing the University of Southern California, has done some digging about the instant replay booth in last year's national championship game. They've discovered that it was an incorrectly hooked-up replay monitor that prevented the proper call from being made on a Vince Young touchdown that should've been overturned.

I'm sure that USC fans find that not only comforting, but timely and helpful, as well. The replay officials at the time told the world that there was an equipment malfunction, but that wasn't the case. Someone just hooked up a monitor incorrectly.

And not only that, you want to know what kind of a high-tech system they were using? Two televisions displaying ABC's broadcast feed and a TiVo. The NFL uses a $125,000 system called "DVSport," while for the NCAA national championship game, they use something you can pick up at any Wal-Mart for a few hundred bucks. In fact, I suspect that many of you are using that very same high-tech Rose Bowl replay system right now. What did they have at the Independence Bowl, a courtroom sketch artist, and a Polaroid camera?

This worked out great for me, since I’m writing extra posts this week as a “guest blogger” for Conquest Chronicles, while I also attempt to maintain these Displaced posts. Add to that my day job and stuff that really matters, like my three kids and my wife and … well, you know what I mean.

The point here is that real Trojan fans these days have too much to enjoy and too much to look forward to than to waste time and brain cells on crap from these Yahoos. So, we should thank Deadspin.

After all, we have other things to focus on, like our jobs, our families … and our destiny.

Fight On! Beat the Bears!
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