Seahawks and Pittsburgh fans deserved better than this

I’ll come clean.  I rooted for the Seahawks.  I picked them to win and I wanted them to win. (Since I’m 1-4 in rooting interest in my last five Super Bowls, it probably doomed them.  I’m sorry, Seattle fans.)  However, that doesn’t change the fact that this Super Bowl was handed to the Pittsburgh Steelers.Now there are going to be two reactions to this. 1) Absolutely, Seattle was robbed; 2) Pittsburgh is the better team and deserved to win.  Unfortunately, we’ll never know because the referees took away the competitive nature of sports and resolved to decide the outcome of this game.  Until this year, the NFL has never had a conspiracy theory such as one that seems to embattle the NBA every spring, but with the Troy Polamalu non-INT and Joey Porter’s remarks (how ironic), and the officiating in the Super Bowl, they will have a big PR problem on their hands.

Unsurprisingly, in the NFL Network recap, there was no mention of the controversial calls.  Only the call that was corrected on review (Hasselbeck’s fumble caused by the ground) was higlighted.  ESPN analysts mentioned the poor officiating but mostly were loathe to bring up specific plays and how they affected the game.  Remember, this is the network that pulled a very popular show, Playmakers, because of pressure from the NFL. Seems suspicious doesn’t it?

Some people will point to Vegas and gambling as the source of the conspiracy but that’s wrong, Vegas wanted Pittsburgh to win but only by 3 or 4 points.  Some people will point to the NFL marketing machine.  This is a little more plausible but still not credible.  In the end, I don’t particularly think this was a conspiracy to give Pittsburgh the Lombardi as it was just poor officiating.  Whether the officials were biased or not, I will not fathom a guess.  What I do know is that they were terrible.

There are three losers in this fiasco.  Most obviously are the Seattle Seahawks and their fans who just wanted to watch their team compete against the Steelers, not the Steelers+Bill Leavy.  They deserved better than to have an officiating crew take away their shot at glory after waiting 30 years.

Second, we have true football fans.  Fans around the country recognized the sheer lopsidedness of the officiating and it made them sick.  If this can happen in the most important game of the year, what will keep it from happening to their team in the playoffs or the Super Bowl.  If you think that only Seattle fans are complaining about the officiating, you couldn’t be more wrong.  Read this petition and see how many fans of other teams are disgusted with the officiating crew.  Even Fox Sports’ Kevin Hench, who picked the Steelers to win is feeling “empty” and “dirty” and wishes he were wrong.  As fans of the sport, we tune into the Super Bowl every year to watch the two best teams compete on the field and we expect a fairly called game.  After emotionally and financially investing ourselves every Sunday, we deserve better.

Finally, we have Steelers fans.  Congratulations.  I’m sure you’re all too busy celebrating the title to worry about the officiating.  You’ll blow it off as “sour grapes” and “sore losers”.  But I think most of you rationally know that this game was far from being called fairly by the zebras. Once you’ve sobered up that is.

Here’s why you deserve better.  Your team might have been the best team on the field.  The Steelers might have won that game outside of the officiating. But we’ll never know. Sports fans love discussing the relative merits of teams and in the case of the 2005 Steelers championship team, there will always be “yeah, but…” argument.   There won’t be any asterisks next to the Steelers in the history books or on your Champions Tshirts but there will always be a footnote in the minds of unbiased fans.  Super Bowl XL*.  Tainted.