Officiating a game on any level is not an easy task, but when you are being paid the big bucks… Officiating a game on any level is not an easy task, but when you are being paid the big bucks to officiate a game, crucial calls must be made correctly.

During the summer I am a little league umpire, so I can somewhat identify with the pressures of making the right call. The big differences are that I am not a professional, I make on average $32 per game and I cannot recall ever making a borderline call in a crucial game that decided the outcome of the game (others may beg to differ).

The National Football League and the NCAA need to review their criteria for who should officiate the big games because this season has been one of the worst that I can remember for officials.

The poor officiating in big games began with the Fiesta Bowl. A last minute pass interference call on Miami’s Glenn Sharpe while covering Ohio State’s Chris Gamble halted Miami’s premature celebration. The official did not throw the flag right away, which means that there was some hesitation.

Unless it was a blatant form of pass interference you cannot make that call. A national championship is too important to make a borderline call.

Realistically you can call both offensive and defensive pass interference almost every time a quarterback drops back to attempt a pass. You have to allow the players to play. It is not like Gamble was tackled in the end zone.

The next incident came two days after the Fiesta Bowl when the New York Giants visited the San Francisco 49ers.

Giants’ long snapper Trey Junkin was unable to get the snap back to holder Matt Allen for a potential game winning field goal attempt. Allen was forced to loft a prayer toward the end zone.

The receiver was pushed over and all that was called was an ineligible man downfield on the Giants. Had pass interference been called on the 49ers, the penalties would have offset and the Giants would have had another chance.

The Giants lost a 24-point lead, but officials not being able to keep up with who is eligible is ridiculous. Maybe kicker Matt Bryant would have missed another attempt, but the Giants were never given the chance.

Tennessee’s 34-31 overtime win over the Steelers on Saturday is probably the game that many people are upset about in the area.

Anybody who knows me or remembers the columns I wrote last year knows that I love the Baltimore Ravens and hate the Steelers with a passion, but I can admit that the call on Steelers’ cornerback Dewayne Washington was absurd.

I watched the game with some friends of mine. I showed up at their home in my Steve McNair jersey as a joke. We watched the game and took cheap shots at each other’s teams, but I must say that when the Steelers lost the game on that call I actually felt bad.

Nobody should lose a game of that magnitude on a call like that. Both the Titans and the Steelers have explosive offenses and good defenses. These factors should have decided the outcome of that game.

The fact that officials are screwing up calls at crucial moments in games concerns me for this weekend’s National Football Conference championship between the Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Eagles and Buccaneers both have dominant defenses, so points are going to be hard to come by. The officials of these games cannot afford to have another meltdown. They need to be on top of their game, because with the two teams that are playing, it may be a ridiculous call that decides the game – and that is wrong.

As for a prediction, even though I am very impressed with the Buccaneers’ stifling defense and the resurgence of its offense, I have to go with the odds.

Tampa Bay has typically been unsuccessful when playing a team in a climate under 40 degrees. Most likely it will be less than 40 degrees in Philadelphia on Sunday, so it will quite possibly be the Eagles and Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.

Kevin Nash is a columnist for The Pitt News.