Monday, February 02, 2009

Zebras Uggghhhh

OK, first of all I'll warn those of you that are not sports fans that this is gonna be a football rant so you can go back to your crocheting if you like. I watched last nights Super Bowl and had a blast, I thought it was one of the best football games I've ever watched. Was it the greatest Super Bowl ever? Hard to say because I haven't watched every one but I will say that it's probably in the top 3 that I have watched. My complaint centers on the officiating. It's not surprising really that in a year that has been marred by some horribly bad calls the championship certainly had it's share of questionable calls. The sad thing is the officiating did a disservice to both teams. It may have cost the Cardinals a championship and it leaves people (those who aren't Steeler fans anyway) questioning the legitimacy of Pittsburgh's hard fought 6th Super Bowl title. Heading into the 4th the Cardinals had been flagged for 10 penalties to 2 for the Steelers and the final tally ended up with the Cardinals being flagged for 106 yards in penalties to 56 for the Steelers. The irony of this that Steeler Nation was on the war path after their regular season game against San Diego in which they were flagged for 115 yards in penalties to the Chargers 5. The Steelers won that game however. And yes, the NFL did admit to getting at least one call in that Charger game wrong. Back to last night, the 2 most glaring examples of this officiating crews ineptness were yet to come. After Santonio Holmes go ahead score he clearly took the ball, shook it and did what appeared to be an imitation of NBA'er LeBron James' chalk ritual. He clearly used the ball as a prop which according to the NFL's excessive celebration rule should have resulted in a 15 yard penalty on the ensuing kickoff. I personally think the excessive celebration rule is asinine and I hate it but it is the rule and I am 99% certain that if it had been Steve Smith, Chad Johnson, or Terrell Owens doing the same thing it would have certainly drawn a flag. 15 yards of field position makes a huge difference on that final drive. And then on Arizona's last play from scrimmage the replay booth chose not to review the play to determine if Kurt Warner's arm was going forward and he had control of the ball or if fumble ruling on the field was correct. Yes, the NFL has said today that the ruling on the field was correct but c'mon this is the biggest game of the year and your replay crew can't take the time to make sure the call is right? The replay officials making that call while the game is still in progress holds a lot more weight than saying it the day after. If you're a Steeler fan (Dana!) congrats and I don't mean to take anything away from their win, but the NFL has got to do something about their officiating. Missing one call a game is one thing, but when your championship game has this many questions it's obvious that something needs to be fixed.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree, the calling was very piss poor. You did however fail to mention the bad call that reversed Ben's touchdown, watch the video on NFL.com and use the pause button. I was also shocked to see them actually call holding for Harrison. But oh well, #6 is in the books, maybe Jones can keep his ego off the sidelines and allow the Cowboys a half @#s chance at catching up!

D said...

Actually I didn't "fail to mention" Ben's overturned touchdown because after watching the replays on Sunday and again today on NFL.com it's pretty clear to me that his knee was down and the officials actually got that one right. I rewound and watched it several times on the DVR and even on NFL.com you can clearly see his knee touch and bounce up. And as for Harrison, his butt shoulda been tossed after his punk move

Anonymous said...

Toucjing and bouncing after the ball crosses the plane is still a touchdown my fried! Prolly a make up call from super bowl XL to make Holmgren happy.
Tehehehehehe

D said...

His knee clearly touched before the broke the plane. Everyone here watching in HD on my 48 inch LCD says so, every sportscaster I've listened to says so and the officials said so. The only ones who don't say so are Steeler fans like you, and I wouldn't expect them too. You got your ring anyway, so let it go.

Anonymous said...

NO, HE WAS IN, HE WAS IN, HE WAS IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The fianl score was 31-21

Jamison C. Jennings said...

ok, I don't want to get caught up between u 2 going at it, but I need something explained to me since I don't watch that much football.

The way I understand it, each team gets a limited number of (red flag) challenges for video review, correct?
If that is correct, then why do they have the "Official Review" only rule under the 2:00 minute warning? Those are the most crucial moments of the game!!

Here's what I think they should do, because I thought what Harrison did was a "punk" move. #1 I think he should have been evicted from the game and given a heafty fine.
#2 If evicted from a game, all stats from the game, points gained from that player removed. Period! IE, the steelers would have had 6 less points than their total and Harrison would have not received the longest TD record in Super Bowl history.
#3 If evicted from a Superbowl game, no Superbowl ring 4 you.

Dana,
before you light into me because my example is specific to the steelers, it's just an example.

Anonymous said...

Not to kick a dead horse, but take a look at this video. All controversial calls explained in full:
http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80e8fa89

D said...

JC excellent points, not sure I'd go to those extremes but you obviously thought it out. The rule for reviews in the final 2:00 minutes I think is supposed to prevent teams from delaying the game, but since you have to have a timeout to challenge why shouldn't you be able to do so if you have the timeouts and the challenges left.

Dana, here's what I think about that video.

1. You have stated repeatedly that the review was wrong in overturning Ben's first touchdown. The fact that the video doesn't address that tells me they think they made the right call and since you sent me the video you are agreeing with it.

2. He actually says they blew the call on Holmes touchdown celebration. I said the same thing.

3. He also says he would have sent the Warner fumble down for review by the referee. That's all I wanted, it's the Super Bowl you have the technology, use it to make sure the stuff is right.

4. As for the Harrison TD, great play and I never had any problem with the ruling there.

5. The roughing the holder penalty was valid and again no problem with the ruling. It is an asinine rule that was properly enforced.


And honestly, this is more of the NFL covering their butt and trying to justify what, by pretty much every account, was another terribly officiated Super Bowl.

Anonymous said...

1. Or they didn't address it because they don't have a way to cover up the fact that he wasn't down.
2. He didn't say they blew it, he said they didn't see it. It happened well after the result of the play and the refs had turned away. You can't call something you can't see.
3. He said it was reviewed during the penalty on the field, and the replay official felt the right call was made. I do wish they would have though, just so people would stop crying about it!
4.Didn't know his big butt could run that fast!
5. If anything, looked to me like he couldv'e been blocked into him. But oh well.

No matter, I still love ya bro. WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS.
And oh, I see JC knows as much about football as he does fishin', pffffft!