By BOB WOJNOWSKI
The Detroit News

DETROIT - We interrupt your NFL playoff weekend to bring you a sign of the times, and the sound of the times. Ready? Waaahhhhh. Sniff, sniff. WAAAHHHHH. Dab, dab.

It's so sad to see burly men cry. But the great game of football, the undisputed national pastime, is degenerating into an endless episode of Oprah.

Everyone blames everyone else for losing. Everyone has an excuse. Everyone hunts for a scapegoat. In case you missed it, the planet's current preeminent symbols of evil and incompetence are:

1.) The dude in Iraq.

2.) The dude in North Korea.

3.) Football officials.

Enough already. The obsession with officiating officially is an epidemic. Terrell Owens? Rich Gannon? Please. The real stars, apparently, are the chubby guys in striped shirts.

Should refs be held accountable? Absolutely. But despite their expressionless faces and robotic hand signals, they are mostly human. Mistakes are part of the theater of sports. Only if intentional bias were uncovered would you have a serious problem.

Writers, talk-show hosts and fans play right into the grubby hands of coaches and players by focusing on the whistle-blowers. In New York, Jim Fassel should be grilled for orchestrating the Giants' astonishing collapse from a 24-point lead against the 49ers. Instead, the man is a pigskin martyr after the NFL admitted the officials blew the final call.

Hmm. If it was such a heinous mistake, how come no one realized it until the NFL pointed it out a day later? More to the point, why should the officials' error collect most of the scorn, when on that final play, the Giants did everything wrong? Bad snap. Bad hold. Bad decision by the lineman who went downfield illegally.

So then you have some dopey New Jersey lawmaker threatening to sue the NFL. You have Paul Tagliabue pandering to the New York angst. You have everyone buying the notion that officials should reach an impossible standard of perfection, higher even than superstar players and coaches.

Thankfully, you also have David Letterman's top 10 list of NFL Referee Explanations (No. 9 - Calling penalties isn't my strong suit - I'm more of a coin toss guy.)

Of course, the Detroit Lions-Pittsburgh Steelers infamous overtime coin toss in 1998 launched the ugly trend of teams granted amnesty for a refs mistake. The Raiders still court sympathy for the tuck rule that helped the New England Patriots win a year ago, even though Oakland had numerous chances to win that game all by itself.

As for the pass interference in Ohio State's Fiesta Bowl victory, yep, the call sure was late. But there's a decent chance it was correct, and Miami also had numerous chances to win all by itself.

And don't even get me started on the Big Ten's bowing to Penn State's increasingly addled Joe Paterno, who spent 2002 treating refs with utter disdain. How did dazed Commissioner Jim Delany react? He recently suggested the conference might explore instant-replay reviews.

That's a ridiculous notion in college football, which doesn't have the TV resources to pull it off. But hey, it's another handy excuse. You know the routine. When in doubt, blame the chubby guy.

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