OT: Holy Terrible Super Bowl Officiating!

[ronm3-migration]

Here is a conspiracy theory.

JC mysteriously shows up again right after the Black Hearted Dwarf is booted.

He actually cut his 30 day trip to wherever to come back on here and post?

Now that folks is interesting.

 

unless of course he is posting from his time share.

 

How bout them Steelers?

[Scheradon]

Look, it's a tough loss for the Hawks to swallow because they were on the cusp of scoring so many times and appeared to move the ball, but saying the officiating decided the game is ridiculous. The refs cannot let clear rule violations go.

 

Pass interference in the end zone, 1Q: I just watched it 6 times and the defensive player did not initiate any non-incidental contact at all. The contact by the offensive player was deliberate to gain an advantage. It will get called every time. Would he have caught the ball anyway had he not pushed off? Probably. Was it a penalty anyway? Yes. Steve Young is taking the position of a QB who wants all that stuff to count so he can throw more TD passes. Irvin the same, a receiver. The rules are tighter now than when they played.

 

The Hasselbeck fumble that was overturned was simply the refs missing that the QB had been contacted before he went down. The contact did not cause him to fall, but it does not matter - but is probably why it was missed. If he had went down without being touched, the ball is still live (no matter what casues the fumble, including the ground) until he is contacted. There is only a special rule for QBs if they slide feet first, where they are down by rule when and where they start their slide. Corrected by the replay team, exactly why they are there.

 

The "phantom hold" on the Hawk TD throw was a flesh and blood full-blown hold. The replay that Madden was looking at when he made the TV comments made it hard to see. I just rewound back to the play itself, and it is clear that the Tackle had the guy in a half nelson, with his arm completly hooked around the defender's - from behind, restraining the rusher!. This is holding.

 

The long Seattle non-TD pass at the front pylon is not even worth discussing. The "break the plane" rule only has meaning if you have established possession or are ruled pushed out of bounds. So, if there is no push, the way to establish posession on a reception is to get both feet down in bounds. At that point you can assess whether or not the ball has broken the plane (and the plane actually extends out of bounds). Since it was clear that one foot was out of bounds, there was no reason for review. His foot did hit the pylon - before it hit the ground establishing the catch. Foot came down out of bounds, no catch, no TD.

 

The call on the low block on the interception return is more a matter of a bad rule than a bad call. This year there were new rules put into place that only take effect on a change of posession like an interception return. In order to protect the players, the rule is that you cannot ATTEMPT TO make a block below the waist on any player, from any angle (front, back or side), with the ball carrier excepted. Well what do you do when the ball carrier is running side by side with a non-carrier? This is what happened to the Hawks defender (was it the QB on the play?). His tackle of the ball carrier was also an attempted and failed block of a player running next to him. There is no doubt this is a bad rule with good intentions. It needs to be reworked or removed. The Pats got hit with this at a much more critical point in a recent game.

 

The Big Ben TD at the goal line was close, but was upheld on review. My Tivo caught a frame or two in one of the replays that shows a part of the ball and the hand holding it over the front of the line before Ben hit the ground (in the air, so to speak) as or just after he was contacted. Since Ben was coming down torso first, he was not down when contacted since no part of him was on the ground yet. Was there ANY WAY IN HELL that the official could have seen this on the field? No, of course not. I would much rather have seen this marked at the 1" line and called a TD by review, which it would have been.

 

I think you guys have problems with the rules. If you want to see a badly called game, watch the Pittsburg / Indy matchup. This game was actually good in comparision.

 

Championship teams make their own breaks. When they get a bad or unfortunate or unlucky call, they make outstanding plays to counteract. Seattle did none of that. Drops. Missed opportunities. Missed FGs. Penalties. They did not deserve to win, and the Refs were the least of their problems.

 

Unfortuately, as is want to happen in such high pressure games, the Steelers could not cleanly take the advantage they were given and win easily, instead making it a well-matched contest by having problems of their own. You play this game on week 17 in the regular season, have the Hawks play like that, and you have a 4-5 touchdown difference between these two teams.

 

Well stated and explained.

[october]

So the Russians cheated in the Olympics. Ok. What does that have to do with a professional football game played decades later?

 

Decades? Do you even know what I'm talking about?

 

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20020801/olympic_arrest_020731/20020801/

 

My bad. I must have been thinking of something else. Still, totally different things. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it's probable. I saw three big calls where the officials would have been crucified no matter which way they went. If you choose to read something into it, that's fine with me. Neither of us will ever know for sure.

[marvelcollector]

I'm going to go slightly conspiracy theorist on you guys and say that for years I've noticed that in big games the media darling tends to get the upper hand in the officiating department.

 

The NFL always says that the notion is preposterous but, at one point, it can't be ignored.

 

Football has become about as (il)legitamate as "pro" wrestling.

 

It's been degenerating for over a decade now, and I gave up on it long ago. Too much money involved in this "operation" to have a level playing field.

 

I ignore anything with the National Fraud Leauge logo on it.

[joe_collector]

JC, you never told us how much you lost on the Super Bowl. Stop ducking the question!

 

I'm not stupid enough to gamble. I don't even buy lottery tickets.

[FlamingCarrot]

Jivemo, quite frankly, I could care less what the "national media" thinks about the supposedly bad calls. Jason Whitlock and Michael Wilbon? Because they saw something differently than how I saw it, I should change my mind now?

 

I have a feeling Jay Mariotti and Skip Bayless are both going to cry bloody murder tomorrow since that's their MO, but that's not going to make the Steelers give the Lombardi trophy back.

 

I'm being serious here. Do you hold the Seahawks accountable at all for losing the game?

[joe_collector]

Do you hold the Seahawks accountable at all for losing the game?

 

I don't care who won or lost, I hold the officials responsible for TOTALLY RUINING the Super Bowl.

[mar-vell]

But remember, next time it might be YOUR team getting all the bogus calls in the biggest game of the year, having to overcome the "feel good" and favored team that seems to get all the lucky breaks.

 

This is the kind of thing I can't stomach, when anger for the officials spills over onto the winning team and generates contempt for their accomplishments. The Steelers had an unbelievable playoff run. They beat the top three seeds to get where they were today. It wasn't "lucky breaks", it was great football. They proved to everyone that they were the best, questionable calls or not.

 

Pittsburgh made the big plays when they had to and that was the difference in the game! That 75 yard run in the second half was all offensive line for pit when you get beat that bad on the line of scrimmage you got a problem! I thought Seattle's QB had a great game except for one play- too bad for the hawks that play was a deal breaker! That said I felt the pass interference call was a bad call against Seattle but it looked to me like Big Ben got the ball over the goal line for the Pit TD in the second half! Any way you look at it Seattle had momentum in the 4th quarter and looked like they were gonna take the lead but choked and let the game get away! BTW I am not steeler fan just an AFC guy from way back!

[october]

I'm going to go slightly conspiracy theorist on you guys and say that for years I've noticed that in big games the media darling tends to get the upper hand in the officiating department.

 

The NFL always says that the notion is preposterous but, at one point, it can't be ignored.

 

Football has become about as (il)legitamate as "pro" wrestling.

 

It's been degenerating for over a decade now, and I gave up on it long ago. Too much money involved in this "operation" to have a level playing field.

 

I ignore anything with the National Fraud Leauge logo on it.

 

Which sport do you prefer? Roid-fueled baseball? Overpaid whiney basketball?

[Psiknight]

I'm shocked this is still going.

 

I still contend that the playcalling was slanted in the Steelers' favor, and it clearly was. The refs were calling against the Hawks and not against the Steelers (well, the first two false starts, but only ONE more penalty for the rest of the game?)

 

But the fact of the matter is that a great team can overcome these things. Seattle couldn't take advantage of Pittsburgh's horrid first half. They messed up their time management, their TE dropped like 6000 passes, and Josh Brown lost them 6 pts.

[CKB]

Sorry guys...but it looks like the national media is disagreeing with you.

 

In addition to Wilbon, Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star (and ESPN contributor) is also seeing things pretty clearly.

 

Article.

 

Porter probably won't address the first-quarter touchdown that Sunday's referees stole from the Seahawks. Hasselbeck avoided pressure and hit Darrell Jackson in the back of the end zone with a beautiful strike. The Pittsburgh cornerback immediately turned to back judge Bob Waggoner and begged for an offensive pass-interference call. After a couple of seconds of thought, Waggoner granted the Pittsburgh request and erased Seattle's hard-earned touchdown.

 

This is an exaggeration. I just rewound and looked at it again, and the ref was going for the flag before the defender turned around.

 

This article seems more about poor officiating in general, and calls out the Hawks poor play as much as anything else. I think he picked a bad champion of poor officiating in using this game. He just picked the one with the most exposure.

[Psiknight]

I'm going to go slightly conspiracy theorist on you guys and say that for years I've noticed that in big games the media darling tends to get the upper hand in the officiating department.

 

The NFL always says that the notion is preposterous but, at one point, it can't be ignored.

 

Football has become about as (il)legitamate as "pro" wrestling.

 

It's been degenerating for over a decade now, and I gave up on it long ago. Too much money involved in this "operation" to have a level playing field.

 

I ignore anything with the National Fraud Leauge logo on it.

 

Which sport do you prefer? Roid-fueled baseball? Overpaid whiney basketball?

 

College basketball and football are far superior to anything on the pro-level.

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Foxsports.com weighs in.

 

Best Quote:

 

Every single questionable, marginal or outright bad call went against the Seahawks

 

And this guy picked the Steelers to win it all weeks ago....

[ronm3-migration]

Baseball is number one!!

[joe_collector]

Great article:

 

This is the space where I get to crow about the frightening precision of my Super Bowl prediction.

 

Where I get to remind everyone that I guaranteed the Steelers would win the title after they beat the Colts. That they were the only championship-caliber team among the final four. That they would dismantle the Broncos in Denver and waylay whomever the NFC sent at them.

This is the space where I get to wag a finger at my colleague Ian O'Connor, with whom I'd waged a dueling columns battle of opposing prognostication. He picked the Seahawks and made a very strong case for them.

 

This is the space where I get to say, I told ya so. But I won't. I can't.

 

I've never felt so empty being right. I feel dirty. I wish I'd been wrong. The Steelers did not deserve to win this game.

[october]

I'm going to go slightly conspiracy theorist on you guys and say that for years I've noticed that in big games the media darling tends to get the upper hand in the officiating department.

 

The NFL always says that the notion is preposterous but, at one point, it can't be ignored.

 

Football has become about as (il)legitamate as "pro" wrestling.

 

It's been degenerating for over a decade now, and I gave up on it long ago. Too much money involved in this "operation" to have a level playing field.

 

I ignore anything with the National Fraud Leauge logo on it.

 

Which sport do you prefer? Roid-fueled baseball? Overpaid whiney basketball?

 

College basketball and football are far superior to anything on the pro-level.

 

I don't personally like college basketball, though I sometime wish I did. Maybe I will start watching next year.

 

College football is ok, but I have always hated the bowl system. Playoffs would be 10 times as exciting and the winner would actually BE the best team instead of just winning the a single game in the most important bowl.

[Scheradon]

Sorry guys...but it looks like the national media is disagreeing with you.

 

In addition to Wilbon, Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star (and ESPN contributor) is also seeing things pretty clearly.

 

Article.

 

I'm very familiar with Jason Whitlock. He likes to stir the pot and get attention. He still thinks Jeff George is the greatest quarterback there is, if that gives you some perspective.

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Jivemo, quite frankly, I could care less what the "national media" thinks about the supposedly bad calls. Jason Whitlock and Michael Wilbon? Because they saw something differently than how I saw it, I should change my mind now?

 

I have a feeling Jay Mariotti and Skip Bayless are both going to cry bloody murder tomorrow since that's their MO, but that's not going to make the Steelers give the Lombardi trophy back.

 

I'm being serious here. Do you hold the Seahawks accountable at all for losing the game?

 

Absolutely. They gave up two big TD plays, floundered on offense, dropped critical passes, and missed two FGs.

 

But the officials shouldn't play such a prominent role in how the game plays out, and in my opinion, they clearly did.

 

Can you name me a single critical/controversial call of any significance that went against the Steelers? Any?

[october]

Great article:

 

This is the space where I get to crow about the frightening precision of my Super Bowl prediction.

 

Where I get to remind everyone that I guaranteed the Steelers would win the title after they beat the Colts. That they were the only championship-caliber team among the final four. That they would dismantle the Broncos in Denver and waylay whomever the NFC sent at them.

This is the space where I get to wag a finger at my colleague Ian O'Connor, with whom I'd waged a dueling columns battle of opposing prognostication. He picked the Seahawks and made a very strong case for them.

 

This is the space where I get to say, I told ya so. But I won't. I can't.

 

I've never felt so empty being right. I feel dirty. I wish I'd been wrong. The Steelers did not deserve to win this game.

 

Did Seattle deserve to win? Maybe we were all watching different games, but I didn't see them turn in much of a performance.

[Illiterati-migration]

Sorry guys...but it looks like the national media is disagreeing with you.

 

In addition to Wilbon, Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star (and ESPN contributor) is also seeing things pretty clearly.

 

Article.

 

Jason Whitlock is a insufficiently_thoughtful_person. I have the great misfortune of reading his articles every other day in the Star, and I have to tell you, he's a laughingstock. He's on the "national scene" in things like ESPN because he's a loudmouth insufficiently_thoughtful_person who never, EVER retracts a statement nor does he concede a point.

 

He's a bit like the Rush Limbaugh of the sports world (purely coincidental that Rush got his start in the KC sports scene, mind you). They both make a living being "larger than life" (both literally and figuratively) characters who take the hot-button issues and ride them like a crew of sailors on Deathlok's mom.

 

In closing, Whitlock is a insufficiently_thoughtful_person who has been calling for the Chiefs to pick up Jeff George for the last eight or nine years. If that doesn't tell you something about him, I don't know what will.