Obviously any comments I made regarding the league, etc. prefering one team applies to this SB & the two teams playing in it. Period. I've never said one word about some grand season-long conspiracy or playoff conspiracy or anything of the sort.
Or even a single game conspiracy. Only that there was a clear and almost universal sentimental favorite and that that sentimental favorite eventually "won".
BTW, objective sports columnists across America agree the refs were lousy at best. Here's one from my local paper:
This Bowl officially tainted
By Furman Bisher | Friday, February 10, 2006, 04:52 PM
http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/sportscolumns/entries/2006/02/10/even_ioc_cant_g.html
There are bad calls in every football game. Therefore, in your opinion, every game must be "tainted". You calling the Steelers the "Stealers" and putting their "win" in quotes says all that we need to know about you and your opinions.
You are well beyond mere "sour grapes".
Do you even live in the Seattle area? Or the Pittsburgh area? Do you even have a dog in this fight?
"BTW, objective sports columnists across America agree the refs were lousy at best. "
If that guy were "objective" in the least he would have admitted that the Roethlisberger TD could have fairly been called either way, that Heath Miller also received a questionable offensive pass interference penalty, that Jeramy Stevens got away with a clear fumble that was called an incomplete pass, that Stevens also dropped at least three passes that were right in his hands, that Hasselbeck threw several passes out of bounds just out of the reach of wide open receivers...sorry, there's nothing "objective" about this guy. Whatever bad calls there were in this game did not "cost Seattle" their chance of winning the SB-that's horse doo doo, and I can show you twenty articles in which sportswriters agree with me on that point.
Did it ever occur to you that the "sentimental favorite" won not because of ref bias but because they just WANTED IT a little bit more? That's what pushed the Steelers to beat three of the league's best, on the road, to get to the SB in the first place. Isn't it just possible that even though they didn't play spectacularly for a lot of the game, they were just a little bit more determined to win than Seattle was? That's a big part of what makes football an exciting game to watch.
Nah. The refs cheated. Have a little cheese with your whine.
The writer of that piece is badly misinformed.