Posted on 02/09/2006 8:30:25 AM PST by beyond the sea
Dear Mr. Tagliabue,
I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to you and the league for my intemperate remarks at our ceremony at Qwest Field concerning the officiating during the Superbowl.
On Monday, just one short day after “losing” (oops) the game, I was still burned about the outcome, and I had consumed about a pound of bad jumbo shrimp for lunch, my stomach was churning, and it was just a bad day all around. I came home from Detroit, our cat was missing from the house, the Governor’s dog was hit by a car, and she was blaming me for that. Just real bad all around, Paul.
Paul, I was still stinging from calls that went against our team. It seemed like the bad calls were stacking up as high as the Space Needle.
I’ve always been known as a good and decent man in the community. Well, perhaps except for the time I borrowed my neighbor’s Rototiller to do that work on the Church rose garden .................. heck I didn’t see that rock ............. like I didn’t see that sneaky Steeler trick play coming. My neighbor told me he wouldn’t be using that Rototiller for a good long time, I thought he’d never noticed it was broken. Wosrt thing I ever did, Paul......... until now.
I feel as badly about my comment to the fans, “ "I didn't know we were going to have to play the guys in the striped shirts as well”, as I did about giving my neighbor back his mangled Rototiller. Come to think about it, that Rototiller was as busted as our defense on that Willie Parker blast right through our defense.
In closing, you must know that I’m still crushed about the loss and my words, but if you and the league are going to fine me for my perverse and untoward words, I ask you to please take into consideration that at least I didn’t refer to the officials as zebras. That should count for something.......................... and, Paul, am I off the competition committee?
Regards,
Mike Holmgren
We can have a "One Week Super Bowl Anniversary Party" on Sunday!
You forgot to add "again" after "Steelers, World Champions".
A ref 20 yards away running at the action did not have a 'better angle'. Every frame from every angle has been analysized and not one shows the ball breaking the plane. There is a perfect angle with a high def camerea right at the goal line and all that it shows is Ben's wristband going in. Pittsburg won the game outright and Seattle certainly has no claims to winning that game, but Ben was given the benefit of the doubt by the ref. The only time the ref saw the ball over the line was when Ben wisely scooted the ball over after he was down. I give Ben kudos for getting the call, but the ball did not break the plane during the play.
Really, if you placed the ball 2" behind the line 2' in the air and let the ref sit stationary on the line with no obstructions and let him evaluate the location for about a minute, then a human being could have made a near perfect spot. But under the circumstances of real time, with bodies in the way and the ref running, spotting the ball within 6" of its actual location is a good spot. That is just part of the game. Football is a game of inches plus or minus 6 inches. That's the game and you have to live with where the chips fall.
Make sure you see my post 160. I would be interested in hearing your response.
Absolutely, and this is the best angle of the moment Ben made his furthest forward progress.
What it shows is:
1. Ben's elbow over the line
2. 3/4's of Ben's wristband over the line.
3. The ball hidden behind his arm.
It is certainly not a 'definite TD'. Is the ball withing 2" of the goal? certainly. Did the ball break the plane? no one can say for certain. The ref made the best call humanly possible under the circumstances. Was it the right call? Me and Ben thinks he came up a fraction short, but it is just too darn close. Reguardless, I don't see how it diminishes the win.
I agree, the game was not tainted, all the calls were reasonable, just a few criticals call went against the Seahawks. The Seahawks lost the game as they did absolutely nothing to claim otherwise. If you lose by that many points, you can't be upset over some questionable (not neccessarily wrong) calls. I am not convinced Ben got in, but it was still a good call by the official as it was humanly impossible to make a perfect spot under those conditions. To say Ben definitely scored is to ignore the evidence.
I guess your point is that the Steelers shouldn't have won the game because of bad calls, is that it? Otherwise exactly what is your point? We have heard this same opinion of Ben not scoring hundreds of time on FR since the game was over on Sunday night. The seven points are on the scoreboard and will never be taken off.
Why do you insist on arguing the same point, that Ben really didn't score, over and over and over? Do you hate the Steelers? Do you hate pro football? Here is a chance to state your reason or reasons for doing the same thing over and over. Don't the think you made your point the first time you made a post that said Ben didn't score? Do you think you made your point with your 20th post about the same thing any better? Or that if you post the same thing 100 times that it is going to make any difference in the final score of the game?
What's the point? What's the frequency, Kenneth?
I have said dozens of times Seattle has no claims to that game, Pittsburgh clearly won. It just rubs me wrong that Pittsburgh fans must insist that Ben definitely scored, when the best evidence available does not show that and Ben himself doubts that he scored. It is like Pittsburgh fans are insecure and feel guilty about the victory, when they have no reason to be. I have been nothing but objectionable. If that makes me into some kind of Steeler-hater to you, then so be it. It is real funny how I bend over backwards to be fair and then get beat Steeler fans.
If you noticed, it was a Steeler fan who posted this thread to bring this dead horse topic up, not me.
Constantly rubbing Steeler fans noses in the assumption that Ben didn't really score his touchdown is not bending over backwards to be fair.
If you agree that Pittsburgh won the game, why do you keep rubbing our noses in this moot point? I counted your posts on this subject in your posting history. I found that you have brought up this same point at least 23 times, then I stopped counting. I did not count it as a point if the subject was the touchdown and you did not say that Ben wasn't over.
Your above post is at least the 24 time you have stated something like "the best evidence available does not show that and Ben himself doubts that he scored".
So, are you going to "bend over backwards to be fair" by posting your same opinion about the touchdown at least 24 more times? You have a strange sense of what is fair. And you always try to justify you same old posts with something like "but I really think Pittsburgh won the game". But its tainted, right?
Good idea ....... I may have two extra tickets to some Washingtonians if they care to attend if they can answer two questions:
Who was the attractive blonde debutante from Houston hired by the ATF, to infitrate Elohim City......who seems no where to be found today.
And, what was Barry Seal’s main drug-running plane named?
;-)
>If you noticed, it was a Steeler fan who posted this thread to bring this dead horse topic up, not me.<
The topic of this thread was Holmgren's fake funny letter to the NFL commish, not whether or not Ben scored a disputed touchdown. Guys like you turned it into that, not the guy who started the thread.
As I've told you, and I'm trying to be completely honest with you, you need to get film/video from a camera in about that position and SEE IT. Then you would be hip to the facts and you could stop the endless misinformed complaints. You are like Mary Mapes with the fake documents. You do not have the correct evidence, believe me.
So ........... just be careful with the tears and the keyboard.
To be more specific, it was you and only you who ever brought up the subject in your post 146 on this thread, complete with a picture. You also commented on the same subject in you posts 163, 166, 167, 169 and 170.
You say "it was a Steeler fan who posted this thread to bring this dead horse topic up, not me".
You are obviously no Steeler fan, and it was you and only you who brought up the subject.
It makes no difference at all, so long as the ball breaks the plane, which it did.
Well I would like to see it. As of yet no one has posted it.
Uh, no.
Not so.
He doubted at the time he had scored, though it is not his job to make that call. The best evidence available is the full motion video tape, which shows a touchdown.
OK, this topic of Holmgrem's phoney appology about his comments about the officiating had nothing to do with the officiating. Two completely unrelated subjects. Sorry to bring up something so far off topic.
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