(Video) Absentmindedness or honest mistake? Referee bizarrely refers to football as “basketball” during Texans-Bills game

The head referee Clay Martin had a major slip-up as he referred to a football as a basketball on live television.

(Video) Absentmindedness or honest mistake? Referee bizarrely refers to football as “basketball” during Texans-Bills game

Clay Martin (Image via AP)

The NFL’s referees find themselves in hot water after every other game. Usually, this is over fans’ disagreements on the calls they made but today, head referee Clay Martin is in the limelight for an entirely different reason.

Clay Martin was officiating a football game but mentally, he was just excited about the NBA regular season commencing shortly. While officiating the rivalry matchup of the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Texans, quarterback Josh Allen scrambled on a play and right after was driven out of bounds by the Texans’ defense.

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The ball slipped out of the quarterback’s hands as he went out of bounds but the Texans were convinced that Josh Allen had fumbled the ball before he went out of bounds. The team sought possession of the ball. This resulted in Clay Martin and the referees going through a replay before determining that the play was dead as Allen’s foot was on the white line when he lost control of the ball.

Clay Martin was a basketball coach before he became a referee in the NFL

While announcing the final decision of the referees after review, Martin fumbled his words. It was an innocent mistake but not surprising considering Martin’s past.

After crew discussion, the runner was out of bounds before he fumbled the basketball.

Clay Martin said
Clay Martin
Clay Martin (Image via Open Source)

Clay Martin was the head coach of the basketball team at Jenks High School from 2003 to 2015. He was named as the athletic director of the school in June. It is worth noting that he has been committed to Jenks for the better part of two decades holding the position of assistant principal and assistant director for community education as well.

It is not uncommon for NFL referees to officiate other sports in the off-season. Martin has experience doing the same but it was absurd to hear him say basketball rather than football in an NFL game. It is concerning to an extent as it puts the mental presence of the head official in question. Referees are required to be locked in and more focused on every aspect of the game, and Clay Martin’s slip-up on air is not going to help the fans’ existing perception of officiating crews in the NFL.