♫Far above collective bargaining, there's an awful smell....♫

There was a nationally televised football game last night in this country. Perhaps you heard about it.

It ended on what has now become known as a "Fail Mary" pass, quite probably intercepted by the defense but awarded to the home team Seattle Seahawks as a touchdown by at least one of the two "replacement" referees who have been working these games since the NFL locked out its longtime unionized zebras.  Owing to the Byzantine set of rules which determine which aspects of plays are immune from review by instant replay (such as the clear penalty committed by the Seattle player) and which aren't (such as the "simultaneous possession" aspect of the play, which isn't as dirty as you might think), the league said, essentially, our bad, but tough on you, Packers.

Before the league's final decision, it was inconceivable! that it might overturn the outcome of a game several hours after bookies had paid off their illegal bets the final score had been recorded in the Holy Books of NFL records.

Inconceivable!, that is, except to students of the game who studied in Ithaca, New York.

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This was long before my time at Cornell, but the story was unique and important enough to include it as a major part of The Sun's centennial collection of essays.  I get this shortened version, not from there, but from a Midwest newspaper.  It recounted the tale I well remember us telling in 1980, of how Cornell scored a game-changing field goal on what the newfangled "moving pictures of the day" conclusively determined to have been kicked on fifth down.

(Note to Eleanor and a few others who don't get the reference: in American football, you get four chances- "downs"- at a time to advance the ball ten yards. "Fifth down" makes as little sense as "strike four" in baseball or "Mitt Romney" in the White House.)

The non-scab college ref that day was named Red Friesell, and it was his human error that became a thing of legend:

Friesell realized his "grave error" in awarding an extra play after a failed Cornell pass on fourth down at the Dartmouth 6.

In footage obtained by CBS, the confusion apparently came as he penalized Cornell for delay of game after it called a timeout it didn't have.

Whatever the reason, it was the actions afterward that were remarkable,....

After confirming what happened, Cornell coach Carl Snavely and president Edmund Ezra Day were inclined to concede. But first they took a vote of the players, wrote the Boston Globe, who voted nearly unanimously to tell Dartmouth it was the true winner.

Cornell athletics director James Lynah wired Dartmouth to say, "Cornell relinquishes claim to the victory," and Snavely added that with his "hearty congratulations" the game belonged to "the gallant Dartmouth team."

Snavely and Day, though, had hoped Dartmouth would top their sportsmanship by being "better sports" and not accepting.

But Dartmouth didn't.

Just as they didn't, 30 years later (and, now, over 40 years ago), when a similar referee error gave Dartmouth a victory over Cornell in college hockey. By then, sports had become too big for sportsmanship, and Dartmouth refused to return the favor.

Seattle similarly took its good fortune from last night and ran with it. Aided by half a dozen illegal blocks in the back which, unfortunately, aren't reviewable, either.