Jim Harbaugh Writes Scathing Complaint Letter to Pac 10 Referees

Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh rocked the college football world this afternoon by firing off a tersely-worded, spelling-error laced letter to Dave Cutaia, the chief of officials in the Pac 10 conference.

The play in question happened after a Stanford punt where a Cardinal defender knocked down the ball with his shoulder pad and then another downed the ball before inexplicably running with the ball into the end zone after the whistle. Harbaugh stormed out onto the field and screamed at the officials for several minutes, demanding that the Cardinal be awarded a touchdown irrespective of the interference penalty, the fact that no Irish player touched the ball, the fact that there was no fumble, and in the rule that a kicking team can not advance a muffed punt. After flinging his hat into the stands, Harbaugh threw himself bodily onto the field and went completely limp, forcing one of the line judges to drag him by his arm onto the sidelines during an NBC commercial break.

In his post game statement, Harbaugh displayed an outstanding lack of self-awareness by calling out the football knowledge of the referees while, at the same time, demonstrating his own total ignorance of the rules regarding advancing muffed punts.

"We got a couple of bad calls. It's hard to imagine people don't know football any better than that. I still can't get over it. It was a really bad call. It should have been our ball and a touchdown for us."

While most people might consider an embarrassing childish display and a hilariously ironic post-game quote a successful day's work, Harbaugh showed that can-do spirit that has made him such an endearing figure in Palo Alto by not letting it end there, instead taking it one step further by sending out this letter to the Pac 10 conference this morning.