Moreover, the execrable officiating cheapens their championship because it's what folks are talking about now, not the glory of Bettis.
Forever Tainted.
The only reason the nFL apologized for the reversal of the Palamalu interception in the Indy game was because Pittsburg still won.
Don't expect similar admissions about the bad calls in this game.
Every professional football player should get a $40,000 per year salary. Unless their team wins the superbowl. In that case, they should get $100,000,000 for each member of the team. Then we'd see some real competition.
I guess the referees threw those interceptions too, and managed the end of regulation time for Seattle too.
Scoreboard.
We had a great thread about this subject yesterday.
My take. The officials were outrageously bad, but when the time came, Pittsburgh came through.
Teams have to overcome this stuff, but sometimes it is impossible. You know like the tuck rule! Seattle could have overcome, but alas, we all will have to listen to the loud mouth Steelers for a year.
I'll never forget the Patriots telling the Steelers to "cancel those reservations" back in 2001 after they beat them in the AFC Championship game.
The Steelers are a trash talking team, but they played good when it counted, and they did not call the bad penalties.
Seattle outplayed the Steelers and got screwed by the officials and still had several chances to turn the game around by making a catch, by making a catch inbounds, and by making fieldgoals. So it was a combination of luck by the Steelers, inept officiating, and blown chances by the Seahawks.
how many field goals did the sehawks miss? If they were that good, they could have gotten more points. They were moving the ball well but did not do squat in the red zone. How bout that nice fancy play the steelers pulled off with whats his name... I don't like either teams but watched anyway... I think the sehawks screwed themselves. They looked better but could not get it done... its all about points. it is what it is...
I'm really starting to get embarrassed for the Seattle fans.
Of course, controlling the entire first half and scoring only three points, receivers dropping easy catches and the worst clock management in NFL history did not contribute to Seattle losing.
Maybe they'll win when they go again in 30 years.
Somehow Seattle isn't responsible for idiotic clock management or two missed field goals or atrocious punting or constantly kicking off through the endzone or dropped passes or just generally being outscored. What about converting 5 for 17 on third down? What about getting completely fooled by the gadget pass by Randle El? The missed tackles on Willie Parker?
Isn't Seattle responsible for anything?
Seattle fans need to get a life and step away from the "Selected, not Elected" rhetoric. All this counting of penalties and adding/subtracting scores sounds just like David Boies before the Florida Supreme Court. You're one step away from blaming the loss on instant-replay machines built by Diebold and scoreboards by Halliburton!
Disputed calls are one thing, but when I taped the program and took the time to review, pause an step-through frame by frame the ball spotting by the refs, they repeatedly, especially when it counted most, shorted Seattle and advantaged Pittsburg. The most obvious case was the one where Hasselback ran for what was clearly sufficient for a first down. When the refs moved (spotted) the ball, sure enough, you could see they moved it back about a foot at least from where it should have been so that it ended up short by 6 inches or so. A picture tells it all. Way beyond the perhaps arguable bad or missed calls, the "fix" was dialed in for Pittsburg from the start.
One thing these threads show well is the collective graciousness, class, and attitude of Pittsburgh fans.
There ain't much.
Have some cheese and crackers with your whine.
Sorry dude, you got punked by the NFL- the fix was on to pay Cowher back for 13 years of dragging the best talent in the league into oblivion. You were just the Washington Generals in this one. The Huskies will take the PAC 10 before the Seahawks are back in the Game. Forget the NFL- you can never beat the refs. I'm from Cleveland- we tried & they just banned beer bottles in the stadium.
IMO the first call reversing the touchdown because of offensive interference was correct - the pushoff gave the receiver a clear advantage and therefore should have been flagged. Even though it wasn't much of a pushoff, it gave the receiver the room to make the catch.
The call over Roethlisberger's touchdown could have gone either way, it was so close, and if it had been called the other way, as not being a touchdown, it would also have not been reversed, because there was not conclusive evidence either way. That stuff happens.
IMO the only really bad call was the holding call that took away first and goal. I didn't see the hold.
But, then again, the flag was thrown before the catch, so it wasn't as if the ref realized he was making a game-changing call.
My advice to the Seahawks fans - quit griping.
I thought it was a great game, especially since I took the under for $100.
Many years ago, a rather tough character told me it's almost impossible to pay off a player. If you want a game thrown, do it through a ref. I'm not saying that's what happened, but the IRS needs to take a long hard look at how ref's are living...