Men of Steel

The AFC and NFC sent their best teams to play in the Super Bowl last night. Too bad the NFL didn’t send their best officiating crew to call the game. The Seahawks boast themselves for having the 12th man but it was the Steelers who had the extra help Sunday night.

Don’t get me wrong, the Steelers won the game by making the plays that the Seahawks couldn’t. Pittsburgh overcame a horrible first quarter to beat the Seattle 21-10. The Steelers took the air out of the Seahawks early in the third quarter when Willie Parker dashed 75 yards for the longest touchdown run in Super Bowl history. The back breaking play occurred in the 4th quarter when Antwaan Randle El hit Hines Ward for a 43 yard touchdown on a reverse pass.

Pittsburgh was a team of destiny, becoming the first team to advance to and win the Super Bowl as the number six seed. Jerome Bettis will ride off into the NFL sunset with a championship ring, won in his home town of Detroit, and Bill Cower finally wins the coveted championship that he deserves.

However, all the storylines will work their way back to the poor officiating. Seattle could have had an early 7-0 lead when Matt Hasselbeck hit Darrell Jackson in the back of the end zone for an apparent score. Back judge Bob Waggoner gave into the Steelers demands for an offensive pass interference call and threw a delayed flag. The Seahawks would have to settle for a field goal. Give Seattle those four extra points and we would have had a different ball game.

In the fourth quarter Hasselbeck was intercepted by Ike Taylor and on the return Hesselbeck made a great diving tackle but was called for illegally “blocking” Taylor across his knees. I’m still trying to figure that one out! How could you be blocking a guy you are in the process of tackling? There was also the Ben Roethlisberger touchdown that was upheld after the replay showed the ball to be inches shy of the goal line.

In my opinion the Steelers would win this game even without the questionable calls. The problem is that without those bad calls the game would have been more enjoyable for unbiased fans like myself.