The NFL Thread Part IV: Super Bowl Edition.

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In regards to the two "blown calls":

The pass interference/TD:
If you don't think that was a PI then you're either blind or don't watch football. The corner's feet moved back half a yard after the receiver shoved him, his progress was clearly impeded.

The Roethlisburger run:
Clearly a touchdown. Roethlisburger's arm was 4 inches past the front plane of the goal line before he got hit, and unless his hands are unnaturally fat, that ball crossed the plane.

People who say otherwise are either sore loser Seabags fans or are completely ignorant about the game of football.

And whoever decided that that asswipe Tom Brady (instead of one of the FAR more deserving former MVP's there - Bart Starr, anyone? Larry Czonka? Lynn Swann?) should toss the coin should be shot. Just another thing on a long list of things that Brady can't throw.
 
please, i like pittsburgh, and i had reasons to root for them. i like bill cohwer and how they stuck with him through bad times, i like bettis, i like ben, antwaan randle el went to my college so it was good to see him win it. but anybody who is neutral watching the game knows that there were some horribIe horribIe caIIs
 
I agree there were bad calls. The Hasselbeck block comes immediately to mind.

But those two calls were the correct ones.

Your conspiracy theory shit is getting old and tired.
 
http://www.profootballtalk.com/rumormill.htm

'HAWKS HAVE RIGHT TO CRY FOUL

We'll need to preface these remarks by saying that we're glad the Steelers won the Super Bowl. The Steelers are a first-class organization in a first-rate town. Yours truly grew up an hour from the 'Burgh, went to college there, and started out in the practice of law there.

And the Steelers earned this one, the hard way. Sixth seed, winning three games against quality teams on the road to get to the championship game.

With all that said, the Seattle Seahawks have every right to believe that they got screwed by the zebras. We're into our fifth year now, and this game provoked the biggest flood of e-mails we've ever received.

So as we raise a lukewarm plastic cup of Iron City to the Stillers, we have to agree that the game was poorly officiated, in various ways. Although we're reluctant to proclaim that the fix was in, Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter's pissing-and-moaning from three weeks ago is ironic, to say the least, following a Super Bowl in which any of the 53 men in the Seattle locker room would be able to make the same claim about the refs wanting Jerome Bettis and the Steelers to win that Porter made regarding his belief that the officials hoped to deliver Peyton Manning and the Colts to Detroit.

Here's a sampling of the e-mails that flooded our box:

1. "I am not a Steelers or Seahawks fan, but I have to say that this was one of the worst officiated Super Bowls I've seen in a long time. Sad to see the refs have an impact on what would have been a great game."

2. "Okay, I'm on the bandwagon now. That appeared to be one of the worst
officiated Super Bowls I've seen. The call that were made were ticky
tack (on both teams), and plenty of apparent calls were missed. Professional officials. What a novel concept."

3. "This Super Bowl sucks. As fans, we want to see a real game. The refs are CLEARLY handing this game to the Steelers. Your scoop on Sports Illustrated already having the Steelers retrospective printed up just seals it for me. I don't know if SI is part of a conspiracy, or if they just know how the NFL operates. A Steelers win equals more revenue for the NFL, in terms of merchandise. Holmgren should've taken that into consideration when he was offered the Seattle job."



4. "The NFL should be embarrassed. And I am an impartial fan. I didn't care who won but I sure didn't want to see it happen that way."



5. "Please for the love of GOD write something about the horrible officiating in the game today. Granted I'm a little biased and wanted the 'Hawks to win but if they lost I'd been fine if the Steelers were the better team. THEY WEREN'T and we played against the officials all night. Please say something about this injustice!"



Here's one we found to be particularly compelling:

---------------------------------------------

I don't know who else I can vent on, so you're getting it. I apologize, but I don't know who else. I seriously don't. So here goes:

This Super Bowl was it. I'm done now. I'm through watching football. I've had it.

This was the worst officiated professional game I have ever watched -- the most one-sided, I mean. And it happened on the biggest game of the year. The two teams did not determine the winner of that game today; the referees did.

So I'm through. I quit on the NFL. Screw them. If that's the best they can do, I quit.

I've got other hobbies I can pursue.

Look, I am not a Seahawks fan. I was not a fan of either team.

But sonuvabitch-------Roethlisberger's PHANTOM TOUCHDOWN???? That was the hugest phantom touchdown I have seen since Vinny Testaverde pulled one of those off.

And when Hasselbeck connected with TE Jerramy Stevens to the one yard line late in the third quarter, those a****** zebras throw a holding flag -- and it was one of those borderline holding calls that could literally BE CALLED ON ALMOST EVERY DAMN PASSING PLAY.

Look, I came to watch a game, a game between football players. I didn't come to watch a crew of striped-shirted old men determine the outcome of a game.

F those guys. I'm out. The hell with football. I no longer trust it.

There was no 2005 champion. If the Steelers had won it, I'd say so. But the zebras won it, for 60 consecutive minutes. Again, I am not a Seahawks fan. I just care about the integrity of the game. I feel sick. I'm out. Maybe for good. The hell with it.

---------------------------------------------

Damn. Here's some more.

6. "I'm a long time reader and supporter of your site and I would love to
voice my disgust of the dubious refereeing decisions of tonight's game: (1) Darrell Jackson's push-off -- "The Playmaker" would have had half of his career TD's called back if they had called them like that in his day; (2) I still don't know how Ben broke the plane of the goal line with his TD; The holding call that would have made it first and goal from the one -- very dubious!"

7. "Where's that big time wrestling channel. Joey Porter better shut his yap about the officials cheating the Steelers. They cheated their way to a World Title tonight."

8. "How about that officiating in the Super Bowl? Worst Super Bowl I've ever seen. Why did the NFL decide Pittsburgh would get this one? The third and six delay of game. Those holding calls (especially the one nullifying Stevens' catch to the one). The personal foul for illegal chop block on Hasselbeck MAKING A TACKLE. The offensive PI against Jackson. I am sick to my stomach right now, and I didn't even care who won. (Not a fan of either team, no money riding)."

9. "No one could have beaten the Steelers tonight, and it's not because they are playing especially well. Seattle is playing against 11 Steelers and however many officials are on the field. This is embarrassing to watch, and Pittsburgh should be embarrassed to win like this. Every pivotal play was negated against Seattle with some bullsh-t call, which would then be followed by a breakdown by Seattle players who obviously were shaken up by such a bullsh-t call. That touchdown that Roethlisberger had makes me wonder why we have replays as much or more so than the Polamalu call that you called the worst call ever. If the NFL is going to run its officiating with such bias like the NBA or MLB, then they might as well drop the salary cap too. Why do people go to games in cities like Seattle or Sacramento when they only get repeatedly f--ked in the a** by their respective leagues?"

10. "The REAL MVP was the referee crew. They took the game from Seattle and gave it to the Steelers. Don't get me wrong, I was pulling for Pittsburgh but I didn't want to see them win like that. The Seahawks were the more dominant team (although, not by much). Kinda seems weird to me that
just recently everyone was griping about the NFL trying to give a game to
Colts. Is it just me or is this the new trend in the NFL? b**** and moan
to get it your way."

11. "You were one of the few national writers to pick the Seahawks to win the Super Bowl, and they were obviously the better team tonight. You mentioned 'raw will of players' and 'coaching adjustments,' but you forgot one major factor in the NFL . . . the zebras."

12. "Want to break a huge story? Why don't you use your connections and see who organized the Steelers Super Bowl fix? That would be the biggest story ever."

13. "Can you please, please acknowledge the horsesh-t calls in this game? This is the worst SB I have ever seen when it comes to officiating. Where are the calls on the Steelers?? This deserves to be mentioned and I am a Dolphins fan."

Here's another long one that caught our eye:

---------------------------------------------

I don't give a flying f--k about the Steelers or the Seahawks. Furthermore, I
didn't have any money on this game, so I really had no investment in the outcome.

THAT said, the way the zebras railroaded the Seahawks was unforgivable. The pass interference on the end zone? The holding call that turned first and goal on the two to second and 20 from the 40? The BS cutblock call on Hasselbeck? The fact that the Steelers never, EVER got called for holding when the holding calls (at key points in the game) that went against the Hawks were marginal at best?

As a FOOTBALL fan, all I could think about was two weeks of "feel good" Jerome Bettis and Bill Cowher stories, an old boys network owner, and all those photos of players holding the Lomardi, which it seemed like they were only showing Steelers in the first half and showed Steelers 65% of the time in the second half.

The whole thing stunk. 'Cause at this point, although September is a good seven months away, it's going to be hard to get excited about a league that has developed the best product on earth, only to piss away their integrity when everyone is watching.

---------------------------------------------

Again, we don't think the fix was in. But there were more than a few times when the Steelers fans with whom yours truly watched the game looked around and said, "We got away with one there."

More to come in our Super Bowl XL Ten-Pack, which we'll post later on Monday.
 
um did i say the game was decided on bad calls alone?

did seattle play like crap and miss out on the opportunities they did have? sure, jeremy stevens dropped like 100 passes. seattles clock management was something martz would be proud of.

but did the embarrasingly bad officiating have a huge effect on the game? you bet.
 
Chizip said:
i think the holding call on their first TD pass was very questionable

the holding call where he caught it at the one was very questionable

the pass interference on the TD was very questionable

ben was not in the endzone on that TD

the personal foul penalty on hassleback was ridiculously bad, he was making the tackle

the fumble call on hassleback was terrible, which at least got overturned due to replay

just so many bad calls, all against seattle. i dont care who wins this game, but such poor officiating taints the game.

like joe said, just that one bad holding call completely changed the game, and thats sad to see.
While I won't go so far as to say the officials were trying to give the Pittsburgh Bettises the win, they absolutely were horendous in this game and most of this postseason.
When the officiating crew is that noticeable, you have problems.

As for DaveC's disputes...the PI on Jackson was extreeeeemley ticky tacky. Cryin' Hines pushed off far more noticeably later in the game with no flag.

As for Ben's TD. Watch the replay and you can see he ball begin to slip from his fingers as it approaches the goal line. The official is signalling 4th down, then Ben slides the ball over th GL and the linesman changes his call to TD after he's run halfway in from the sideline. I think if Roethlishamburger's glove is white and not black, you'd notice the ball slip out of his hand and back towards his stomach before hitting he plane of the GL and therefore not a TD, but the play was definitely not conclusive enough for replay to overturn.

Hasselbeck getting flagged for making a tackle is just ponderous.

That said, as bad as the officiating was (read that very bad), Seattle's clock management and late game play calling were worse.
They completely fouled up the drive before halftime, forcing a 54 yard FG attempt.
But worse was their penultimate drive of the game. Down 11 points, huddling on every play, 3 runs in the mix, and lastly frigging punting with about 6 minutes left. I know it was 4th and long after the sack, but you have to try and win the game, by punting you pretty much gave up.

And Big Ben was horrendous, 22.6 QB rating.

All in all not a very "super" bowl.

Congrats to the Steelers. You know the Pats would have whooped your asses had they got past Denver. Next year baby.
 
and the douchebag of the night award goes to Joe Montana for demanding a 100,000 dollar appearance fee to show up with all the other superbowl MVP's during the pregame ceremony and then not showing up when they wouldnt give him the money.
 
DaveC said:
In regards to the two "blown calls":

The pass interference/TD:
If you don't think that was a PI then you're either blind or don't watch football. The corner's feet moved back half a yard after the receiver shoved him, his progress was clearly impeded.

The Roethlisburger run:
Clearly a touchdown. Roethlisburger's arm was 4 inches past the front plane of the goal line before he got hit, and unless his hands are unnaturally fat, that ball crossed the plane.

People who say otherwise are either sore loser Seabags fans or are completely ignorant about the game of football.

Were we watching the same game?

On the pass interference, the receiver made his cut and turned, and then when he realized his QB was in trouble, he broke in the other direction. His hand grazed the corner, but that's all. Impeded? Yeah, right. We see that play a gazillion times over the course of a season, and it's never called. That was absolutely terrible.

And Roethlisburger did NOT get that ball over the goal line. No way.
 
comments between advils...


--the entertainment on the television began and ended with the pregame introductions of the past super bowl MVPs... the only two living MVPs not in attendance was terry bradshaw, who was in detroit but said he wanted to spend the time with his family... strange... and joe montana, also in detroit, but didn't show up because, according to newsday and espn radio, the NFL wouldn't pay him $100,000 in appearance money. if this is true, the myth of Joe has taken a big hit in my mind.


--two reunions i was hoping for based on the pre-game ceremony... phil simms and steve young, and of course, joe namath and suzie kolber... unfortunatly, as far as we know, neither happened.


--the national anthem was terrible, but i won't tell aaron neville that because he could snap me in half with one hand.


--i don't know why they picked tom brady to flip the coin with all of those legends on the field... i would have went with bart starr myself, but eh... whatever. apparently, again according to bob glauber from newsday, that joe was supposed to flip the coin, but they used tom as a replacement when joe bailed.


--i'm trying to figure out if the seahawks hired herm edwards as a special consultant... talk about horrific play calling and clock management. the end of the first half and end of the game were very herm-esque.


--let's get it out of the way right now... the refereing was TERRIBLE, as it has been throughout the entire playoffs. i'm throwing the rothelisberger touchdown run out, because that was too close to call. i personally don't think he was in, but it was so close that it's really not that big a deal. the offensive pass interference call? more contact is made on your average ten yard route by plaxico burress than was made on that play. the only time you could actually see the OPI was when they showed it in slow motion. was it pass interference? yes, if you want to be technical, he made contact with the defender... but it's something that happens on almost every single play and is normaly over-looked. so the refs were bad... which is par for the course.


--that said, the seahawks had tons of opportunities to win this game despite the refs. TONS. obvious penalties on kick returns, blow field goals, horrific clock management at the end of both halfs, dropped passes, not enough touches for the fucking NFL MVP, a terrible interception by hasselback as seattle was driving to take the lead, blown coverage on a 3rd and 20+ play, and blown coverage on the reverse wide-out option (the backup safety was in because of injury, and he bit like a mofo on that reverse), how many fucking times does the punter have to kick the ball into the endzone? is jeff feagles the only guy in the league who can directional punt anymore? jeez...

refs make bad calls... it's part of the game. winners suck it up and over-come the adversity of it all, losers bitch and moan about it. thus explains the colts. whiney little bitches... starting with marvin harrison, ending with peyton manning. the steelers had every call... EVERY call go against them in that colt game. some of the worst calls ever made, but they still managed to make the plays when it mattered most. the colts didn't, the seahawks didn't.


--as good as the salary cap has been for the NFL, part of me still yearns for the days of the true dynasty. the parity of today's NFL makes what the pats have done even more amazing, but it's more of a testiment to their coaching staff and their front office than it is to their players. brady is great and all, but after him, they're not exactly superstars. the 49ers they are not. the only team out there that really has great talent on one side of the ball are the colts... but since they're a bunch of bitches, they can't win even when it's handed to them on a silver platter.

back to the point, if there is one... neither of these teams, pittsburgh or seattle, are great teams. they're good teams, not great. i don't know if we'll ever see team loaded with great talent again like we did in the 80s and early 90s. i sorta miss that.


--down 11 in the super bowl, with 6 minutes to go, why the hell is seattle taking their fucking time in the huddle? it was like philly last year all over again. and then they don't go for the field goal with 30+ seconds to go... you HAVE to kick the field goal there... it's the only way you have a chance to win is to kick the fieldgoal and try for the onsides kick. herm-esque at it's best.


--the sound for the stones sucked. keith didn't seem into it... mick was good, but something with the guitars sounded off... perhaps they weren't tuned properly. and i haven't checked the rest of the forum yet, but i'm willing to guess there's a bunch of silly u2 fans who are bitching about the stones ripping off the ellipse, completely ignoring the fact that the stages were designed by the same guy, and/or the fact that u2's ripped off the stones a bunch of times coughcoughcoughflatbedtruckthroughmanhattancoughcough.


--the crime deterent cell phone commercial was spectacular. i liked the monkeys and the jackasses, and some of the beer commercials... other than that, the commercials kinda blew. the diet pepsi commercials were terrible. not that i ever drink diet pepsi anyway, but now i won't even buy one for someone else just based on the shityness of the whole brown and bubly bullshit. oh, and the bud lite commercial where the guy tackles the shit out of the chick... that was awesome.


--i thought john madden did a very good job, which i never think... but i thought al michales sucked and i won't be sorry to see him go now that abc's lost football.


--good for the bus.


--mike holmgren did shake bill cowher's hand off camera... there were too many people between them and holmgren couldn't get to cowher on the field in view of the cameras, but he did make a point to go to pittsburgh's locker room to find cowher after the game. so we can stop bitching about that.


--i'm glad that i didn't have to pay to go out, 'cause that game sucked. free beer is splendid.


--and finally, the only thing that really matters... i had steelers 1, seahawks 0. yahtzee.
 
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Ben Roethlisberger's first INT set up Seattle's first TD. On the return, Roethlisberger was ahead of the DB and was in decent position to make the tackle, but clearly got shoved in the back. That would have put Seattle back at midfield instead of the Pittsburgh 20, had it been called.
 
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speedracer said:
Ben Roethlisberger's first INT set up Seattle's first TD. On the return, Roethlisberger was ahead of the DB and was in decent position to make the tackle, but clearly got shoved in the back. That would have put Seattle back at midfield instead of the Pittsburgh 20, had it been called.
Actully that was Ben's 2nd INT.:wink:
 
Let me first say that I don't give a crap about either team, had no money wagered, and if anything, pulled for Pittsburgh because I'm from Detroit.

That was the worst officiating for a championship game I've ever seen. And the calls were embarrasingly in favor of Pittsburgh.

I don't think there's a conspiracy. I don't think anyone was paid off. But the truth is Seattle got hosed, and it's a shame. Seattle definately screwed up their opportunities, but correct officiating would have made for an entirely different game.

I'm just looking forward to the day when my team gets screwed by these idiots. :mad:
 
well, I can't contribute anything that hasn't been said already, soI'll just add this:

I thought the Fabio commerical was awesome !!!
 
a few comments on the 'BIG GAME'

The entertainment was a joke, why do people have to butcher our National anthem??? I'm tired of all these stars ruining it. the best anthem singer was the one who used to do it at the Blackhawk games. Also the stones should find someone who can sing...& maybe write some new songs too.

nice flip by brady, what'd the coin turn over twice??

Seahawks made tons of mistakes: missed FG's, lousy punter, couldn't pin the steelers down deep in the first half, could have led to some good field postion for scoring opport. terrible clock mngmt both halfs, 3 & 30 & you let them complete a bomb? offen pass inter in the end zone which it was!
now there were the 2 plays.. hasselbacks cut block, & the holding penalty which were suspect but if you don't throw the pick well that get rid of one of those.

Steelers Ben either had a bad hand or something but he sure didn't throw like he did the rest of the playoffs. That pretty much turned them into a running team which made for a boring game. Even the passes he completed looked like wounded ducks.
Kudos to the Bus, was hoping he would at least score on for the road.

most of the commercial I saw sucked, the ones I watched couple of the beer ones were good. the pepsi one BLEW!!

The refs pretty much sucked, which is normal I think they should do something to get these part timers off the field.

announcers were okay, I heard michaels wants out of his contract so he can go to NBC with Madden.

Overall the game didn't seem to have a flow to it except for the third qtr. but Pitts won so I'm happy with that.

PS I had $500 on Pitt (-3) so that makes me real happy:wink:
 
Al Michaels was off all night. I was very surprised - usually he's got it together, but he mumbled his way through some plays and really seemed to be out of sync.

Madden was his usual jovial self, for better or worse.
 
:lol:

Thanks for reminding me of something.

For those who watched this in HDTV, there was a glitch for what seemed like eternity where we couldn't hear the announcers, but everything else, like Hasselbeck barking orders at the line of scrimmage.

And it was only on the HDTV broadcast, because at one point I switched over to regular TV, and Al and John were blabbering away.

It was quite refreshing, those five minutes...
 
The Super Bowl was underwhelming as per usual.

A few thoughts.

Pre-game: Too freaking long. Stevie Wonder, good, however, as will be a recurring theme, the sound was horrid.

Banner: Just pick one artist! Also, the sound sucked and actually made Aretha sound not amazing.

Game: Dominated by the defenses early and often which was not surprising. Officiating sucked as it has throughout the playoffs. As for the Super Bowl, I really think instead of "All-Star" crews, they should pick one crew.

That offensive PI call was a bit ticky-tack. The way that DB was arguing, I expected the replay to show he was pushed to the ground or something. Needless to say, that is not what the replay showed.

The TD was too close for me to call, and the replay was right on, no incontrivertible evidence to overturn.

The holding call against Seattle was pretty bad, heck even Madden said so and that's shocking.
I do not believe there was a conspiracy, I mean this isn't the NBA or something :wink:

That stretch in the 3rd quarter was great though, great momentum shifts.

Halftime: I was underwhelmed. I'm not a huge Stones fan, but again they were undone by the horrid sound. I was watching this game in HiDef with Dolby. But the sound for the show didn't even sound like stereo. I was impressed by how much energy Mick Jagger had, not bad for a dude of that age.

Commercials: Ever since the dot com bust, the commercials have underwhelmed. I actually liked most of the budweiser commercials. I like the FedEx commercial, the Career Builder commercials and the Mastercard MacGuyver commercial. The burger king one was horrid and the car commercials were boring.
However, my personal fave (completely biased) was the Desperate Housewives spot with Matt Leinart :heehee: I was amused he was in more spots than Tom Brady and he isn't even in the NFL yet.

Overall, typical Superbowl, not played by a team I really like, meh.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
and i haven't checked the rest of the forum yet, but i'm willing to guess there's a bunch of silly u2 fans who are bitching about the stones ripping off the ellipse, completely ignoring the fact that the stages were designed by the same guy, and/or the fact that u2's ripped off the stones a bunch of times coughcoughcoughflatbedtruckthroughmanhattancoughcough.

eh hem...

namkcuR said:
The Rolling Stones(who, btw, have blatently ripped off of U2's stage design heart/elipse/whatever ideas)

MTEdge said:


I am. The Stones, BTW, were very good although the rip-offs from U2's live shows (the ellipse/ tongue set-up, the Milky Way lights, etc.) were in abundance.

:whistle:

apparently u2 have now invented the lighter in the air.
 
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