The big news item today is the blown call at the end of yesterday’s Chargers Steelers game. While not affecting the outcome of the game, the official’s decision to invalidate Pittsburgh’s last minute touchdown caused San Diego to beat the point spread resulting in a lost wager for those who picked Pittsburgh. To make matters worse, the play was originally ruled a touchdown and then was overturned based on a false understanding of the rules. The NY Times paints an interesting picture of the pandemonium that ensued at the Vegas sportsbooks:

As befuddling as the end of Sunday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the San Diego Chargers was for fans — when an apparent Steelers touchdown on the final play was affirmed by the referee and then waved off with little explanation — imagine if your company had bet $1 million on the point spread and more than 1,000 people were loudly demanding you pay it off.

Bob Scucci did not have to imagine. As the head of sports betting for Boyd Gaming in Las Vegas, he lived it for a harrowing 15 minutes Sunday night, when chaos reigned about the final score. Bettors who had picked the Steelers and given 4 to 5 points believed that Troy Polamalu’s final-play touchdown had made the final score 17-10, making them winners. Those who had taken the Chargers and the points insisted that the play was later reversed and the final score reverted to 11-10, making them the winners.

As he watched the mounting mutiny from behind the counter at the Orleans Casino, Scucci said, he knew that “maybe” would be an insufficient response.

“People were trying to cash all sorts of tickets — no one was really sure,” Scucci recalled in a telephone interview Monday. “They demanded an explanation. It got pretty ugly.”

Ted Sevransky, a prominent professional handicapper, said: “It was chaos. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The controversial play took place soon after the Steelers had kicked a field goal with 11 seconds left to make the score 11-10, with the subsequent kickoff and one last Chargers play from scrimmage remaining. Philip Rivers threw to LaDainian Tomlinson, who lateraled to Chris Chambers, whose toss toward Rivers was tipped by Polamalu — who corralled the ball and ran it into the end zone for an apparent touchdown.

Suddenly the Steelers led, 17-10, with 0:00 on the clock. Pittsburgh bettors were delirious and Chargers bettors distraught, but all joined in communal confusion when the referee, Scott Green, announced that the play was being reviewed.

“It was so loud that we couldn’t hear what the ref was saying,” Scucci said.

At one point, Green signaled touchdown again, but it soon became clear that matters were not settled. Viewers on the East Coast saw CBS flash an 11-10 final score for a few seconds before the network switched to its “60 Minutes” interview with Barack and Michelle Obama. Stations in the Pacific time zone stayed with the CBS game feed.

This is one of the reasons I dislike betting on the point spread. Nothing is more frustrating for me than to lose a bet because my interests as a bettor are no longer in sync with the coach who only cares about winning the game. In this particular case the Steelers coach really had no motivation to argue the call as they had won the game regardless, and you often see examples of teams just spiking the ball at the end of the game rather than kicking an easy field goal if they feel they already have the game won.