Head Official from Purdue/Mizzou Game Has Troubling Past

Ever since Sparks’ game winning touchdown was overturned, Purdue fans have been irate about it. I was on the opposite end of the spectrum, trying to say “well, refs tend to overturn it when they see that kind of evidence.”...”well maybe if we weren’t down 27-10 we wouldn’t have had to worry”...and other BS that came out of my mouth.

Well, when you’re presented with new evidence, sometimes you have to change your views and become unreasonably angry and write a probably stupid article, and that’s what I am doing now.

You see, I never looked into who the head official was from Saturday’s game. Turns out, his name is Daniel Capron.

Oh, that name doesn’t mean anything to you because normal people don’t know the names of the officials? Right, okay. Here’s a quick refresher:

Capron was the head official for the 2016 Ohio State/Michigan game. A game that had many questionable calls in overtime, especially where they ruled that JT got a “first down”. (As a Michigan alum, yes, I am still bitter.) This is a call that will be a sore subject for awhile. I could go on-and-on about that, but I know you don’t care about this, so let’s bring this closer to home.

During the 2002 season, Purdue lost to Wake Forest at home 24-21, and extremely poor officiating was partially to blame. In fact, the officiating in that game was so bad that the Big Ten suspended five of the officials, including the head referee: Daniel Capron.

When the late-Joe Tiller learned that Capron had not only returned to officiating after that game, but was allowed to officiate big games such as Michigan/Ohio State, he certainly was not pleased:

“You would like to think that once they were semi-retired by the Big Ten that the Big Ten would say, ‘No, you’re done, period,’ ” Tiller, who coached at Purdue from 1997 to 2008, told USA TODAY Sports. “We had a real mess in that particular game from an officiating point of view...Tiller said he recalled Capron’s work. “I remember him as being not a bad official, not a top-rated official,’’ Tiller said.

Imagine if Joe Tiller were still around to hear that the same official, who was suspended after the Wake Forest game, was the head official for the Mizzou game this weekend. And he used “indisputable evidence” to overturned such a crucial play? A play that, according to the Big Ten, should not have been overturned:

Alright, alright, alright, I also hear you: “But Juan, that was 16 years ago! He’s probably changed and improved.”

Well, maybe. But how about one more piece of damning evidence to blow the roof off this overblown conspiracy?

According to Daniel Capron’s Linkedin account, he went to Illinois for his undergrad, AND he went to Indiana University of Law School.

*GASPS*

*puts on tin foil hat*

So not only does this official have a checkered past with Purdue and other Big Ten teams, but he also graduated from two of Purdue’s rival schools. And yet, the Big Ten continues to let him officiate important games within the Big Ten and games involving Purdue.

I don’t know about you, but something smells fishy about this guy.