John O'Neil has retired

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"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go” -Oscar Wilde

"No word yet on who will replace O’Neill as a full-time Big Ten referee."  Urban Meyer, perhaps.

Praise Jebus!

Special Agent Craig Ross, you have fulfilled your mission

He didn't really retire --- he just graduated, UPWARD (?!?!?!), to a new job!  

No doubt, some officiating stupidity will happen in a Detroit Lions game at some point going forward.

All the celebratory GIFS managed to crash my browser  . . . and I'm still happy about it (and still logged back in to share in the joy as well).

and Angel Hernandez just got black balled from doing a World Series game today as well, hmmmmm........

Maybe he'll join Mike Pereira in the replay booth and have a point-counterpoint. John can give us all the wrong interpretations then Mike can straighten him out. Of course, that's no different than what's been happening for a number of years.

He’s the worst of the worst.

“All I can say is, it’s about time.” 
 

-Ranch Wilder

This leaves me wondering what position he assumed in the NFL.

I take this as nothing but another example(42-27) of the cosmos finally correcting itself.

DING DONG the witch is dead!

I’ve felt this for a while.  The B1G should hire officials - and they should be conference employees who are evaluated by both teams after every game / contest.

There’s certainly enough money in the current - and upcoming - media deals, to afford to do this.

The approach I suggest - is to cross train officials - this would be a full time position - with officials covering multiple sports during the year. In the fall, football, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, etc..  There’s enough sporting activity / events - to do this.   It may take a few years to complete this cross training - but at least - the conference should make the effort.

I also realize that certain sports involve a “more subjective” scoring system- Gymnastics and Diving ( as in Swimming & Diving) come to mind.  I accept that these are more challenging - but, again, the conference should make an effort to do this.  

To go out on a bit of a ledge - maybe softball and baseball could employ a “camera / computer” strike zone.  This is a progressive idea - and, perhaps it could take root.

The B1G - IIRC - was the first college conference to introduce replay.  I believe this approach to officiating could position the B1G as a thought leader - once again.

Did anyone like this guy?  It seems like every team had a horror story where he royally screwed up their game.

To his credit, he has more wins over Michigan than Kirk Herbstreit. 

Whew!  Thank the Lord.

FUCK YEAH!!!!! This made my day/week/month/season. Fuck that ass-clown.

Praise the Lord!! Finally

"joined the NFL as a referee position coach"

I assume he is specializing in "short yardage" situations.

Hallelujah!!!

Here's a rule of thumb: if people know your name, you're a bad ref.

Had to log in to say, oh thank god....

PosBang!!!!

I'll never forget my senior year during the ND rain game we got so close to the field because no one showed up and I heckled him the entire game. He changed where he stood after the first few media timeouts and I legitimately think it was because of me. 

I will drink to this news!

🎵There's a party goin' on right here. A celebration to last throughout the years.🎶

Somebody better let MeanJoe07 know.  He really liked John O'Neill.

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I've matured.  I would like to wish John O'Neill a happy retirement.