JIMinFL wrote:
Chuck! I think you are on to something. There must have been a conspiracy.
The Seattle Seabirds must have gone to the mat to help the Steelers win. I
wonder how much the payoff was.


This morning's press is not kind to the referees, and certainly not
just from Seattle.

Michael Wilbon, Washington Post, wrote:

Ben Roethlisberger's third-down dive into the end zone simply was not a
touchdown. Because less than two minutes remained, the call was
reviewed in the booth. And everybody in the stadium plus everybody at
home culd see, clear and conclusively, that Big Ben didn't get the ball
across the goal line. It wasn't a touchdown, plain and simple. Yet the
call stood and the Steelers had a touchdown.

Another penalty, assessed to the Seahawks early in the fourth quarter,
which negated a gain to the 1, also never happened. A penalty against
Hasselbeck for blocking below the waist when, in fact, he was trying to
tackly the interceptor, was also erroneous. It would be irresponsible
to say the officials were intentionally cheating Seattle, but the bad
calls killed the Seahawks.

**

Jason Whitlock, Kansas City Star, wrote:

The inevitable finally happened. A group of middle-aged executives
trying to keep pace with a group of highly trained 20-something
athletes destroyed America's sports holiday.

Pittsburgh's one-for-the-thumb Super Bowl will be remembered as the
game when physically overmateched referees and heads-buried NFL
executives flipped non-Steelers fans an XL middle finger.

**

Down your way, Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel wrote:

Any other conclusion and it would have been like "It's a Wonderful
Life" ending with Beorge Bailey actually jumping off the bridge and
drowning.

We wanted the Pittsburgh Steelers holding up that trophy. We needed the
Pittsburgh Steelers holding up that trophy.

If the Seattle Seahawks had won, it would have been the stuff of dull
documentaries. The Steelers winning was the stuff of fantastic
fairytales.

**

And then finally from Bob Simisk at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (who
naturally needs to be pretty careful with his choice of words):

This one wasn't the splendid domination the Steelers had shown in three
previous playoff games. This one, truth be known, was a bit
ugly.......By winning in such a fashion, the Steelers proved just how
good they are. It's takes a special team to win when it doesn't have
its "A" game.

***


Bob Simisk may be on to something. When the Steelers brought their "B"
game and a crew of less than objective referees, it was more than
Seattle could overcome with a "B" game of its own. Had Seattle played
up to its recent standards, even the lousy calls would not have
prevented the Seahawks from rolling over the "B" game of the Steelers.