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Seahawks and Pittsburgh fans deserved better than this

By Vin, Section NFL
Posted on Mon Feb 06 2006 at 2:06 AM EST Printer Friendly Page
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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.

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Seahawks and Pittsburgh fans deserved better than this | 7 comments (7 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Sluggish, and tight (#1)
by Cellar Dweller on Mon Feb 06 2006 at 9:19 AM EST
The overriding factor of the game was how sluggish and tight both teams played. The refs had nothing to do with dropped passes (4 for Stevens, 2 for Hines Ward, 1 for Cedric Wilson), bad throws, bad play calls, bad strategy, etc...

For example, why were the Steelers playing so far off of the Seahawk receivers in the first half? West coast offenses run short routes. So, why give them 10 yards of cushion?

And, why did the league MVP only get 20 carries, when his qb threw the ball 49 times?

And, why did Holmgrem and Hasselback keep trying to go deep on third down, when they could have easily moved the chains and kept drives alive? The short stuff was working ALL GAME! Why go against that?

The fans do deserve better - better play from the teams!

Well put (#2)
by AJKaufman on Mon Feb 06 2006 at 2:23 PM EST
The fans deserved better. It was a sloppy game, and the calls certainly went Pittsburgh's way. The NFL preferred the Steelers to win. That's not to say anything was rigged, but let's face it, a Pittsburgh win a a bus announcing he is in the garage is a good story. The game really sucked. Seattle outplayed the Steelers but could not manage the clock or the game as well as Pittsburgh. How Mike Holmgren punts the ball away (to gain 30 net yards) down ten points with eight minutes left is befuddling.

I can't wait for March Madness, where 75% of the games are exciting, or even the NBA or MLB playoffs where at least half the games are intense. These NFL playoffs produced ONE exciting game: Pitt-Indy. Will the fans notice next time, or are we too blinded by "the NFL" to notice? I'm not. Good riddance to the 2005 season. I am happy today.

Steelers favored all right (#3)
by teeberg on Mon Feb 06 2006 at 3:30 PM EST
I'm generally not a conspiracy theorist, but there's no doubt this game was slanted the Steelers' was for the past two weeks. Oh, Hasselbeck and Alexander got their requisite interviews, and Jerramy Stevens was even dragged into a Super Bowl week "scandal." But, come on, who could miss the favoritism the league itself showed Pittsburgh for this game? Anyone notice all those black-n-white shots of players & coaches holding the Lombardi trophy during the game? The first FOUR in a row were Steelers; only twice did we catch photos of Seahawks, and Cowher got the nod while Holmgren was completely snubbed. I dig the Steelers, but this was ridiculous.

Seattle, of course, didn't help their causes for outrage. Stevens' dropped passes; Hasselbeck's passes that sailed over Jackson and Jurevicius at crucial times; Hasselbeck turning into Manning by ignoring plays called in and calling his own; and Holmgren's Andy-Reid-like brain farts at the end of both halves all really screwed with might have been a good gameplan for them. Still, regardless of the 'Hawks' problems, the refs should have let them play instead of deciding the game on their terms.

In the end, Trevor was right: This game sucked.

I'm usually not a conspiracy theorist either (#4)
by Editor on Mon Feb 06 2006 at 4:55 PM EST
because mostly the conspirators in question usually don't care about the outcome and benefit more from a fair game.  But last night was ridiculous.  It's amazing that fans all over the NFL view it as a tainted Super Bowl.

[ Parent ]
Give Pittsburgh a break!! (#5)
by RJ Warner on Mon Feb 13 2006 at 10:30 PM EST
Living in Pittsburgh, I know that the game was poorly officiated (The NFL's continued and BAFFLING use of part-time officials is a whole other column idea). Every single call went the Steelers' way. But c'mon, we suffered through Kordell Stewart for five-plus seasons. So give us a break, let us hoist an Iron City, take out a 2nd mortgage to pay for the tickets we bought on E-bay and enjoy a Super Bowl win for the first time in 26 years.

By the way, the Seahawks wouldn't have taken that game had it been placed on Angelina Jolie's chest.

I hear you (#6)
by Vin on Tue Feb 14 2006 at 8:00 AM EST
Even though I'm anti-Steelers, I wrote that column more along the lines of how terrible the NFL officiating is.

I think

[ Parent ]

Jerome Bettis (#7)
by the eighth 1nder on Sun Mar 26 2006 at 1:16 AM EST
Yeah, I live in Pittsburgh. So what? Yeah, the refs sucked. So what? I think the league did all they could possibly do for Jerome to have one of the best stories in NFL history, everything just went perfect for him in the end... the climax being the fumble vs. the Vanderjactoffs, then the happy ending in Detroit...
M.
Seahawks and Pittsburgh fans deserved better than this | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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