Self-proclaimed unbiased referee personality Terry McAulay is still talking about missed holding call on A&M

Texas A&M's heroic final drive against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish featured several huge plays, but the fourth-and-goal toss to Nate Boerkircher will live on in Aggie memories for quite a while.

It appears the same is true for Notre Dame fans, but for very different reasons. The Irish faithful have been grousing about a missed holding call for quite some time— one which, in all fairness, was indeed a missed holding call.

If that play had been flagged, it would have wiped out the touchdown to Boerkircher and set the Aggies up for a fourth-and-goal from the 21 yard line— not a sure death sentence for their chances, but certainly something that would make it harder. In light of that, Notre Dame fans have been bemoaning the play time and again since that point, sniping with Aggie fans, and the officiating expert from the NBC broadcast, Terry McAulay (who you may remember as the head referee for the Bottlegate incident), has been right there alongside them.

Terry McAulay won't stop talking about final Texas A&M play against Notre Dame

It all started with this tweet right after the game ended from McAulay— you can see from that second paragraph the possible implication that the referees decided not to flag the play due to the game situation.

McAulay had criticized the same crew earlier in the game for calling a holding on Dametrious Crownover that simply wasn't there, of course. It's also notable that the Aggies went for an extended stretch last year without having a holding penalty called on their opponents, despite boasting three high-round NFL draft picks in their defensive front.

In a sense, then, Aggie fans feel like this washes out— especially given how many judgment calls went against them last year, you could see this as a regression to the mean. You don't want to overcorrect, but it's hard to feel too bad for Notre Dame fans here.

Given that it's social media, you have to expect some kind of blowback, especially in the wake of such an emotional game. The way that McAulay responded, though— and continues to respond— is a bit odd.

I don't think you need to quote tweet "Durag Elko," Mr. Officiating Man. It kind of takes away from your gravitas.

I'd like to juxtapose the above sardonic reply regarding how little he cares about this officiating abnormality with this tweet, where he claims to be "obsessive" about officiating.

It's now the Tuesday following the game, and he keeps replying to nearly every tweet he comes across, often with personal jabs. There are people jabbing at him as well, but there's a degree to which you just can't keep this up for this long without people beginning to question your level of personal, emotional investment in the argument. It seems to go beyond principle here.

There are even Texas fans telling him to move on, but he just keeps going! That's when you know you're too deep in it.

There's obvious merit to his original claim, but the level to which he has fixated on this makes it seem as though he has a personal vendetta against anyone who is telling him to move on. It's just strange.