Dreith called a highly controversial penalty on Ray "Sugar Bear" Hamilton of the New England Patriots during a 1976 AFC divisional playoff game against the Oakland Raiders.
Dreith flagged Hamilton with less than one minute remaining in the game for roughing quarterback Ken Stabler on a 3rd-and-18 incompletion, giving the Raiders a first down to sustain their game-winning drive.
After the Jets' Marty Lyons (misidentified as Mark Gastineau during Dreith's call) tackled Bills quarterback Jim Kelly to the ground and repeatedly punched Kelly in the head, Dreith announced to the crowd: "There's a personal foul on number 99 (Lyons actually wore 93) of the defense—after he tackled the quarterback, he's givin' him the business down there, that's a 15-yard penalty.
On February 13, 1991, the EEOC ruled that the NFL had violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act by illegally demoting Dreith.
In the first-ever lawsuit filed by the agency against a professional football league for age discrimination, the EEOC claimed that the NFL unfairly reviewed the job performance of older referees more closely than that of younger officials.