Tom Barrabi

Think back to your days on the 8th grade football team. If you’re like us, you sat on the bench daydreaming about girls while the man-child that could already grow a beard ran sideline to sideline and crushed anyone in his path.

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As you may have heard, hobos and miscreants are in charge of refereeing NFL games now! Or, rather, the NFL has decided to use high school referees as replacements while it negotiates with the actual referees' union, which has led to the occasional minor controversy. And while Monday's night's disastrous ending to the Packers-Seahawks game is probably the pinnacle (or nadir) of this sad saga, there were already plenty of questionable, puzzling and downright infuriating officiating decisions leading up to it.

Let's have a look, shall we?

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By now, even non-football fans have heard about the officiating debacle in last night's showdown between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks (just check your Facebook feed). Facing a 12-7 deficit with just seconds left to play, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson rolled out of the pocket and threw a desperation heave into the end zone, resulting in a game-clinching interception for the Packers.

Except it wasn't. Instead, the NFL's much-maligned replacement officials inexplicably ruled the play a touchdown for the Seahawks, ignoring an obvious offensive pass-interference penalty and cementing the phrase "simultaneous catch" into the lexicon of poor sports officiating.

This screw-up will, hopefully, lead to the return of the real refs—but let's not forget that they too have made their share of awful calls over the years. Here's a look at some of the NFL's most controversial officiating decisions:

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Will they go down in history as heroes, or choke when it matters most? Many of the most rewarding moments in professional sports are borne from last-second heroics.

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