By the time the 1999 season rolled around, the NFL could safely rely on instant replay to solve all the referee errors, and there was nary a controversy again … until that year’s playoffs. That didn’t take long.

See, the Tennessee Titans were a miracle team, knocking off the 14-2 Jacksonville Jaguars and coming within one yard of tying (or possibly winning) the Super Bowl against the Rams. There’s a lot of people, however, who think they never should’ve gotten the chance to do either. Earlier in the playoffs, with 18 seconds left and the Bills up by a single point, Frank Wycheck lateraled a kickoff to speedy Kevin Dyson, who returned the ball 75 yards for the winning touchdown now known as the Music City Miracle.

Thing was, it seemed pretty clear to the naked eye that it was an illegal forward pass, and thus should not have counted. There was instant replay, except the cameras weren’t situated perfectly to get the right angle — plus, Wycheck threw the ball from a funny arm angle that made determining the actual trajectory difficult.

There’s only three groups that say for sure the pass wasn’t forward: Titans fans (the homers), gamblers that bet on Tennessee, and the referees who really don’t like to be wrong. Even well-respected NFL journalist Adam Schefter declared it the wrong call — the ball traveled forward. But the head referee announced “the call stands,” meaning that there isn’t enough video evidence to overturn it. It also means that, had a referee thrown a flag for an illegal forward pass, that call would have stood. So they screwed up twice. Wonderful.

Sometimes blown calls happen early in games, and they get forgotten. And sometimes, teams run the most ill-conceived fake play ever and that’s all you can remember from the game because HAHA Colts.

And then there’s both. In 2015, the New England Patriots traveled to Indianapolis to take on the Colts. Early in the second quarter, Mike Adams intercepted Tom Brady and took it back for a touchdown. On the ensuing kickoff, the Colts got tricky and attempted an onside kick — the original call said Colts ball, but after a brief referee huddle, the call reversed, and the Patriots got the ball. Instant replay was inconclusive despite replay 10000% showing a Colts player on the ball. So much for replay!

You can say it was only the second quarter, but New England scored four plays later and won by seven. So yea, it had a big impact on the game. Besides, if the refs didn’t blow that call, the Colts don’t run the dumbest fake play in the history of the Milky Way, where they snapped the ball to a defensive back on a fake punt, with no blockers and 53 guys in front of him. The fake didn’t work, but you already knew that.

Just a week before Dallas got hosed on Dez Bryant’s catch/not-catch, they were gifted a call that facilitated their win against the Lions. With about 8:30 to go in the 4th quarter, Detroit held a slim 20-17 lead, and a 3rd down and 1 from just inside Dallas territory. Everyone watching saw the same thing — Cowboys linebacker Anthony Hitchens interfered with tight end Brandon Pettigrew, clearly grabbing his arm prior to the ball getting there, which is much a penalty as a penalty can get.

The referee in charge of watching that play threw a flag, which should’ve been the end of it. However, he was overruled by Head Linesman Jerry Bergman, who claimed there was no grab because from where he was standing — at an obviously bad angle to see anything — he couldn’t see it. Dallas later scored the go-ahead touchdown and won 24-20, pretty much the definition of getting away with one.

Time for the most famous “crazy” play in NFL history, the one even your Aunt Roxie who knows nothing about football is familiar with. During the 1972 playoffs, the Steelers’ Franco Harris caught a deflected ball — barely grabbing it before it hit the ground — and ran it into the endzone for a game-winning, 60-yard touchdown. And there was much rejoicing.

Here’s what a plethora of people don’t know — the referees convened for 15 minutes before deciding that, yes indeed, it was a touchdown. The NFL wouldn’t see a more boring 15 minutes of uselessness since the next Up With People halftime show. But the play in question wasn’t “did Harris snatch the ball” — it was “off of whom did the ball ricochet?” See, prior to 1978, the NFL inforced a double-touch rule, saying an offensive player couldn’t be the first to possess a tipped ball from his own teammate. The slow motion replay made it appear the ball hit the Steelers’ Frenchy Fuqua’s hand, so the Immaculate Reception should’ve actually been the Illegal Reception.

Reports immediately after the game said TV replay played a hand in the final decision, with referee Fred Swearingen calling the press box and asking fellow ref Art McNally what he thought of the play. McNally denies he offered any evaluation of the play, however. The player who could end all the speculation is Faqua, but he’s mum on who the ball hit. Really, though, with an awesome nickname like Frenchy, let’s just let sleeping dogs lie.

The NFL has seen plenty of rule changes in recent seasons, some to promote safety and others to promote scoring. Many have complained that it’s not longer possible to play defense in the NFL because the league believes viewers just want to see more points scored. If that’s true, then fans were probably pretty excited about the Rams-Chiefs game on Monday night in November 2018, which saw 105 points scored and really seemed more like a college football game. But when the Rams took on the Saints in the playoffs, it became clear that some refs didn’t get the league-wide memo sent out back in 1912 or whatever on one of the oldest rules in the game: pass interference.

In the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship Game, the Saints were knotted with the Rams at 20-20 with just under 2 minutes remaining. On third and 10 from the Rams’ 13-yard line, Drew Brees threw a nice, classically Drew Brees pass to receiver Tommylee Lewis near the goal line. Just before the ball got to Lewis, however, Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman showed up, blasting Lewis (pass interference) and making significant helmet-to-helmet contact (also a penalty). The Saints home crowd went understandably wild. They knew their team could punch in the ball from the 2-yard line, about where it would be placed after such an obvious penalty. Then they went wild for the opposite reason. The ball wasn’t going to be put on the 2 because the refs didn’t throw a flag. Ouch. Instead of running the clock down and scoring, the Saints were forced to kick a field goal. The Rams answered and won the game in overtime and a new rivalry was born.