- Aug 24, 2001
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edit: Update
PORTLAND, Ore. -- The instant replay official whose failure to overturn a bad call led to a narrow victory for Oregon over Oklahoma said he feels like he is under siege after receiving menacing phone calls and a death threat.
Gordon Riese said he would make a decision soon about whether to finish the season, or even whether to return next year.
"I'm struggling with it," Riese said in an interview at his home. "I feel so bad I missed that call, it's driving me crazy."
A former college baseball pitcher in the 1960s who was inducted into the Portland State Hall of Fame in 1997, Riese said he never played football but always enjoyed the game during 28 years as a Pacific-10 Conference official.
"I loved it, I absolutely loved it," Riese said.
But that was before he became an instant replay official.
"I've felt much, much more pressure as an instant replay official than I ever did on the field," Riese said.
He said the equipment is not as sophisticated as NFL replay equipment, and does not allow the official to freeze the frame. But Riese lays the blame on himself after replays showed that an onside kick was touched by an Oregon player before it traveled the required 10 yards. The Ducks went on to score the go-ahead touchdown.
"I can't sleep, I can't eat, my blood pressure is skyrocketing," Riese said, looking haggard and worn as he sat on the front porch of his house.
His wife is a registered nurse, and has been checking his blood pressure every four hours, he said.
Riese said he has stopped answering the phone, and police are investigating the threatening calls while keeping an eye on his neighborhood.
"They not only threatened me, they threatened my wife and kids," Riese said.
Riese has endured plenty of physical pain in his career. He said a torn rotator cuff ended his pitching days, all the ligaments in his right knee were torn when he was hit by an Oregon defensive back at Autzen Stadium in a 1984 game against Washington State, and he separated a collarbone when he was run over by opposing linemen trying to block each other in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl.
The knee and the collarbone still bother him, occasionally, he said. But not as much as his ruling from the booth last Saturday.
"I don't know how to deal with it," he said. "I guess it's just one of those things."
edit: Update
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - The Pac-10 Conference issued a one-game suspension Monday to the officiating crew and the instant replay officials that worked last weekend's Oklahoma-Oregon game after finding mistakes were made in calls near the end of the game.
Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen said a video review of the game by conference officials revealed that both the instant replay officials and the game officials made errors in the final 1 minute, 12 seconds of the game.
Oklahoma lost 34-33 after Oregon scored two late touchdowns.
Earlier on Monday, University of Oklahoma president David Boren sent a letter to Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg, asking him to push for the Sooners' game against Oregon to be eliminated from the record books and having the Pac-10 officials involved in the game suspended for the remainder of the season.
"To describe the lapses in accurate officiating at the Oklahoma-Oregon football game last Saturday as constituting an outrageous injustice is an understatement," Boren wrote in the letter dated Monday.
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops has said he believes an Oregon player interfered with Oklahoma's ability to recover the onside kick by illegally touching the ball and a Sooners player before the kick traveled 10 yards. He also believes the Sooners recovered the kick, as tailback Allen Patrick had possession at the end of the play.
Stoops has also said he believes Oklahoma defensive end C.J. Ah You tipped a pass by Dennis Dixon that resulted in a pass interference call. If the ball was indeed tipped, the pass interference call would have been negated.
Both plays were reviewed using instant replay Saturday, and Hansen had said an announcement would be made Tuesday on whether the calls were correct.
Boren requested "an apology from the Pac-10 for the gross errors in officiating" and also called for the Pac-10 to change its rule that requires only Pac-10 officials be used for nonconference home games.
The letter also asked the Big 12 to place on the agendas of NCAA meetings and conference commissioners' meetings a discussion of how the review process should be implemented.
"It is truly sad and deeply disappointing that members of our football team should be deprived of the outcome of the game that they deserved because of an inexcusable breakdown in officiating," Boren wrote.