Most Devastating Call of All Time Against Every NFL Team

Some of the NFL’s most well-known moments are shrouded in referee controversy.

Many of them involved calls that were objective misses. Some were so close that the debate will live on forever. And even a few were clearly the correct calls.

You know the Tuck Rule will be mentioned in an article about devastating calls.

You know the Tuck Rule will be mentioned in an article about devastating calls. MATT CAMPBELL/AFP via Getty Images

Some of the NFL’s most well-known moments are shrouded in referee controversy.

Many of them involved calls that were objective misses. Some were so close that the debate will live on forever. And even a few were clearly the correct calls.

But all of them were undeniably devastating.

Defining Devastating

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Sean Payton reacts to THAT no-call in the 2018 NFC Championship Game.

Sean Payton reacts to THAT no-call in the 2018 NFC Championship Game.Chris Graythen

Here is the step-by-step process I used to select every team’s most devastating call:

– The call had to have come in a loss.

– No-calls were eligible to be included.

– The stakes of the call weighed heavily. Most of these calls were made in playoff games, and many of them were made in Super Bowls. The call also needed to have a big impact on the game.

– Three regular-season calls were picked. Though the teams that had regular-season calls picked have had playoff calls go against them, the regular-season calls were so historically bad that they won out.

– When deciding between two calls that had similar stakes, I almost always chose the call I found to be worse. In other words, sometimes I was choosing between a clearly bad call and a somewhat questionable call. I usually chose the clearly bad call.

– In a few cases, I chose a call that I agreed with because nothing else came close for that team. For example, I believe Dez Bryant’s catch was correctly overturned to an incomplete pass based on the asinine rules at the time, but that is the selection for the most devastating call against the Cowboys nonetheless.