Super Bowl Refs Steal Seahawks Show
chicagosportsreview.com
Monday, February 06, 2006
By Chris Sprow*
For those who wish to believe the outcry regarding the complete trashing the referees handed Seattle yesterday is overdone - already crying foul are Michael Wilbon, Skip Bayless, Jason Whitlock, Michael Smith, and many others (check out Slate.com) - consider the immensity of the response had this happened to Pittsburgh.
Well, you don't have to. We already saw it. And that's when they won!
It didn't take the affable yet classless Joey Porter more than five minutes after the Steelers had beaten Indy in the AFC divisional playoffs for Porter to ask the league not to "take it from us."
So imagine if Pittsburgh's game had been absolutely devastated by several calls, at the most crucial times, as Seattle's was yesterday.
Seriously, imagine.
In that instance, the part time football league and fulltime marketing juggernaut known as the NFL would have been forced to make some form of a public statement, or, more likely, go into uber-spin control and hide away in bunkers armed only with their sovereignty and ability to dish out fines that even Joey wouldn't want to pay.
Note to Seahwaks players with a sense of justice: maybe Paul Allen will.
Not that Porter had to pay one the first time. Just as nobody in Seattle should have to ante up even a nickel were they to take a look at the tapes and see what all of America saw - as well as virtually every non-Pittsburgh columnist who wasn't in the hospitality room the whole time - and cry foul.
Because the fact is, "upon further review," they'll see themselves get robbed.
They'll see a phantom offensive pass-interference on Darrel Jackson which overturned a touchdown. And they saw that occur for the most dubious of reasons, when Steelers safety Chris Hope literally went into full Jack Abramhoff mode, and openly lobbied the official for the flag.
The official waited, and apparently amused at Hope's rhetoric, complied.
They'll see Ben Roethlisberger make a diving leap on third down into the endzone when the ball never conclusively crosses the white goalline. We can say in retrospoect that the ball might have crossed, but in the Super Bowl, why do we have to presume touchdowns at all, and much less then rely on a system where the very official that makes a questionable call is the one forced to overturn it?
Not only is the NFL full of what are clearly subjective officials, these subjective, and clearly, clueless zebras are forced to become subjective on their own subjective rulings. This, frankly, is a sad subject.
Not only is the college system quicker, it (gasp!) works at a much higher rate, Vince Young's knee notwithstanding.
Perhaps the worst sequence of the game (or the best, if the NFL is as pro-Steelers as it looked yesterday) for the refs saw a phantom holding call on Sean Locklear nullify a Matt Hasselback pass to Jerramy Stevens that put the Seahawks at the Steelers two yard line, down just 14-10. Not only was the play a noted bad call (even Madden, who you'd think sits on the refs board, pointed that out) Pittsburgh's Clark Haggans appeared to have jumped off-sides on the play. As Locklear noted after the game, he believed it to be a free play because the Steelers were off-sides.
The call stole a presumed seven points - and the lead - from Seattle.
A play later, facing a long third down thanks to the penalty, Hasselbeck was intercepted, and then, unbelievably, was called for "a block below the waist" when he tackled Ike Taylor to end the play. How the heck do you low block … as the tackler?
That set up a Pittsburgh trick play, which essentially sealed the deal. Or Steeled the deal. Or, in the refs case, stealed the deal.
Not sure.
As Jason Whitlock pointed out this morning, the NFL showed an XL-sized middle finger to every non-Pittsburgh fan that watched the game.
And he's from Kansas City…
You probably won't hear about it a lot either. Unlike the Steelers, with Joey the Mouth (did he make a play, by the way?) there won't be any marches on Canton with torches in hand. In fact, aside from a halftime mention of one bad call, Mike Holmgren was genuinely gracious after the game, and said his team simply made too many mistakes.
Hasselbeck was also contrite, mostly pointing out his team's errors.
But wait until they see the tapes.
Given the opportunity before the game to line up against 12 players in black and gold each play, or against the powers-that-be of the NFL and its representative referees, the Seahawks probably would have chosen the latter, assuming the NFL's delegation of stripes couldn't possibly take them behind the woodshed, when, in front of nearly 100 million viewers, there simply would be no place to poison the game in seclusion.
Bad call.
They should have opted to give the Steelers the 12th man. Because, in the form of the officials, the Steelers got more than that.
They got an NFL-sized stamp of approval on their franchise, while Seattle, quite plainly, got the shaft.
If you're convinced that any rant on this topic is a mere case of heading to Disneyland and walking away only complaining of the long lines, look around. This isn't a quiet case of conspiracy theory, or call it repeated bad calls against one under-represented team theory.
I'm stacking a little wood on an already warm fire.
It only seems too theorized because the Seahawks themselves won't bring it up.
They know too well that Tags will be waiting to hand out tickets. And perhaps fortunately, because the errors were so remarkably egregious for a stage so big, they can let the rest of us impartials do their complaining for them.
They deserve at least that.
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*Chris Sprow is the Editor of The Chicago Sports Review magazine. He also contributes to the New York Times, and is a frequent sports radio guest. |
