Quakes, Tweets and The Call

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Yesterday afternoon at 3:10 there was an earthquake in Irving, that registered 3.5 on the Richter Scale. And you thought the Cowboys winning a playoff game was no big deal. It made the earth move dude! Oh wait, this just in, that was the 17th earthquake in Irving since late October of 2014. The truth is that the epicenter of many of them is the former site of Texas Stadium, in fact a new earthquake monitoring device has been installed there in an attempt to determine the cause. The quake made national news yesterday and it captured the attention of the sports world here in North Texas. The Cowboys were in meetings at the time of the quake, but their Valley Ranch complex tremored when the quake hit.

Here are some tweets from around the time of the earthquake:

Rangers pitcher Derek Holland tweeted, “This earthquake crap needs to stop. I can’t take a damn shower without the house shaking. And yes I was naked and fell in the shower. Hahaha #imfine.”

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Stars Captain Jamie Benn said, “Earthquake woke me up from my nap! #GameDayProblems.”

And my favorite, comes from former Rangers pitcher Brandon McCarthy who tweeted, “This is not a joke: I literally just farted during the earthquake in Dallas. What a magical feeling that was. #bucketlist.”

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Did the demolition of Texas Stadium contribute to the recent earthquakes?

The fact that seismologists at SMU decided to place a seismograph at the site where Texas Stadium used to stand does cause one to wonder, did the implosion of that stadium do subterranean damage? Has fracking in that area weakened the core of the earth? Or did Jerry really sell his soul to the devil when he built the new stadium? Maybe these tremors are a result of Jerry being late with his payments.

One disgruntled Lions fan tweeted that it only felt like an earthquake but in reality the officiating crew has since picked up the flag and it was not an earthquake at all. Bitter!

On the subject of  “The call.” There is a very simple answer to the question about this. I learned the answer from Jimmy Johnson when he was coaching the Cowboys. I also remember Bo Schembechler saying it when he coached at the University of Michigan. All great coaches know this answer and the vast majority of them believe it. In the immediate aftermath of the game Lions head coach Jim Caldwell said the right thing, demonstrating that he knows the answer too. It’s an answer I’ve shared with my kids throughout the process of youth and high school sports. The answer is, “You must be good enough to overcome a mistake by a referee.” The truth is the officials made a mistake and the Lions were not good enough to overcome that mistake.

The Cowboys owe no one an apology. There were missed calls on both sides of the ledger. There always are. When Anthony Hitchens was asked about the pass interference non-call yesterday he said, “I don’t know. I’m just trying to do my job. I don’t make the calls, so that’s that.” Good answer Anthony. Almost as good as the one Jimmy always used. Now if we could just get an answer on what is causing these earthquakes…

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John Rhadigan has called Texas home for nearly 25 years, having spent 11 years at NBC 5 as a sports reporter/anchor and 13 years as an anchor at Fox Sports SW. Rhadigan is the recipient of more than a dozen Emmy Awards for sports reporting and anchoring.