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To: Mannie who wrote (50067)	2/6/2006 1:03:57 AM
From: Cactus Jack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 104216

Scott, Not much you can do as a fan other than grit your teeth and wait until next year. The 'hawks had a great year. No reason to think they can't do it again. jpg

To: Mannie who wrote (50067)	2/6/2006 1:10:14 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 104216

For Seattle, it was a rare opportunity lost seattlepi.nwsource.com

To: Mannie who wrote (50067)	2/6/2006 2:21:33 AM
From: abuelita	Respond to of 104216

Seattle then got flustered and played into their own defeat.. it sure seemed that way to me too. howsomever .... i was hoping one of the two would win - and they did!!! <vbg> i like both of these teams, so it really was a win win for me although my heart was for seattle ..... and you :) and ... i won the 3 quarter pool draw! have you ever heard of tiny tina?? tinytina.com she and her husband own 'daddy cools' pub here in masset and they played the legion last night - ohmygod. the place rocked. we all danced like tiny tina turners!! and nursed a few hang overs at the game today. she is playing at a benefit concert in bellvue next week end for the boys and girls club - apparently after her 15 minute set she'll be auctioned off to the highest bidder to perform at a private party. the seahawks will be there along with the richest and brightest including billy himself. they were really hoping the seahawks would win today. -zita

To: Mannie who wrote (50067)	2/6/2006 3:32:05 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 104216

Throw a flag on these Super Bowl referees BY JASON WHITLOCK Kansas City Star Posted on Mon, Feb. 06, 2006 DETROIT - What crime-ridden, boarded-building, automotive-industry-ravaged, snowy Detroit couldn't do, an NFL officiating crew pulled off with relative ease in front of plenty of bored-silly football fans inside beautiful Ford Field. Sports' and television's most indestructible beast - the Super Bowl - met its match in the 40th playing of the game the world stops to watch. The inevitable finally happened. A group of middle-aged executives trying to keep pace with a group of highly trained 20-something athletes destroyed America's sports holiday. Pittsburgh's one-for-the-thumb Super Bowl will be remembered as the game when physically overmatched referees and heads-buried NFL executives flipped non-Steelers fans an XL middle finger. The Steelers shook off a terrible first quarter and whipped the Seattle Seahawks 21-10 in Super Bowl XL. Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher, after a 14-year pursuit, secured his long-overdue first title. Receiver Hines Ward won the MVP award with a five-catch, 123-yard, one-TD performance. The Bus, Jerome Bettis, contributed a couple of big plays in his Super Bowl homecoming. And Ben Roethlisberger, the boy-wonder QB, overcame a couple of critical mistakes with a few all-heart runs and throws. The Seahawks did what they could to help the Steelers, too. Jerramy Stevens, called out by Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter during pregame hype, dropped enough Matt Hasselbeck passes that FBI investigators would be negligent for failing to interrogate Stevens today. His third-quarter TD catch has to be considered a smokescreen, clutched with two hands to fool people suspicious of a point-shaving scandal. Seattle coach Mike Holmgren's end-of-the-first-half play-calling and clock management also contributed to Pittsburgh's victory. Trailing 7-3 and having moved the ball to the Pittsburgh 40 with 48 seconds on the clock, the Seahawks wasted a good 30 seconds as Hasselbeck flapped his arms, shouted directions and impersonated Peyton Manning at the line of scrimmage. If not for a Pittsburgh timeout, it appeared the Seahawks were going to take a delay-of-game penalty or try to run out the entire clock. Eventually, Holmgren sent Josh Brown out to attempt a 54-yard field goal - which Brown missed - and walked into the Seattle locker room with one timeout in his pocket. But make no mistake about Super Bowl XL, the performance of referee Bill Leavy and his crew overshadowed Pittsburgh's heroics and Seattle's blunders. Paul Tagliabue's league has an officiating crisis. Bogus, inconsistent flag-throwing and rule-interpreting is making the national pastime difficult to take seriously. So far, only Joey Porter has demonstrated the necessary courage to address what we all see. Many of these part-time, 50-year-old referees don't know what they're doing and can't keep up with the action. Porter fumed when the refs nearly stole Pittsburgh's playoff victory over Indianapolis by overturning a Troy Polamalu interception. 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. The Seahawks settled for a field goal. Had they not been robbed of the four points, they would have ended the game with the ball and the opportunity to drive for a game-tying touchdown. Seattle was victimized by two other questionable first-half calls - including the 1-yard TD run the refs awarded Roethlisberger when he seemed a few inches short of the goal line - but the final backbreaking call helped set up Pittsburgh's game-icing, reverse, wide-receiver-pass-to-Ward touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Ike Taylor intercepted Hasselbeck deep in Pittsburgh territory. Hasselbeck stopped Taylor at the Pittsburgh 29 with a perfectly executed form tackle across Taylor's knees. The refs flagged Hasselbeck for illegally "blocking" Taylor across his knees and gave the Steelers 15 additional yards. The Seahawks justifiably can complain that Sunday's one-sided officiating disrupted their offensive rhythm and undermined their focus. The officiating had to creep inside their head. And NFL fans need to acknowledge that there's something terribly wrong with professional football. This year's playoffs were horrible. Sunday's Super Bowl stands as an appropriate symbol of the 2006 playoffs - boring and poorly officiated. We are too technologically advanced, and the NFL is overrun with too much money to put up with the kind of officiating errors that are ruining the pro game. The league needs younger, full-time referees on the field and a three-man officiating team sitting in the press box supervising what is called on the field. All calls - including ones like the offensive pass-interference call that killed Seattle - should be subject to quick review and overturning. You don't need an official on the field to stick his head underneath a blanket draped over a camera to review calls. Those decisions can be made in a press-box suite. Instead of stopping the game for commercial timeouts on nearly every change of possession or when a coach just wants to stop the clock, the game should go to a commercial timeout whenever a critical penalty needs to be reviewed in the booth. Also, the officiating crew should be forced to address the media and defend their decisions. It's ridiculous that the media are allowed to confront players, coaches, executives and owners, but the guys who can easily change the course of a game with one questionable decision are pretty much off limits. Bill Leavy and his crew ruined Super Bowl XL. Am I the only one who would like to hear them defend their incompetence? miami.com