After losing a close game to Southlake Carroll last week on a controversial onside kick call, the principal of Skyline High School in Dallas said he intended to file a formal letter of complaint with the University Interscholastic League. Skyline blew a 24-14 lead with two minutes and 26 seconds remaining in the state semifinal, first by allowing an eleven-play touchdown drive in just under a minute, and then by giving up another after the disputed onside kick, which Skyline believes did not travel the required ten yards.
‘It is not about sour grapes,” Skyline principal Harold Wright told Randy Jennings of ESPN Dallas. ‘We’re going to be men about it. But people need to know that a mistake was made. Our community is upset and we felt compelled to do this.”
But it seems Wright forgot to tell Dallas City Councilman Dwaine Caraway to put away the grapes. As Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Observer‘s Unfair Park reported, Caraway released a letter (via City Hall) calling on the UIL to investigate the referees.
“I understand that mistakes happen,” Caraway wrote, except apparently he doesn’t, since he also said, “These bad calls make me question the motives of the officiating crew.”
“He demands an investigation,” Wilonsky wrote. “He demands you demand an investigation.”
In a comment on that post, “MattL1” wrote:
It looks like the call was wrong. That sucks. But bad calls are a part of football, and indeed every other sport, at ALL levels. There’s no need for an investigation. Refs are human. They miss calls.
All that being said, none of this precludes the Skyline faithful from looking back on this moment and wondering what might have been. After all, that’s part of being a fan. It’s just not something the City should throw its weight behind.
And one gleeful message board poster at 5ATexasFootball.com suggested Caraway should have penned a letter to the Skyline coaching staff instead: “I, Dwaine R. Caraway am calling upon the University Interscholastic League (UIL) to investigate the lack of coaching preparation that cost the Skyline High School football team an opportunity to compete in the state championship game.”
Meanwhile, as the Morning News also reported, the refereeing controversy overshadowed something else that happened in the final moments of the game: a fox ran on the field.
