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.

wrote:
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.

Chuck,
I agree that the Seahawks were robbed, I don't agree that their was a
conspiracy.

--
Reggie
************************************************** *************
That's my story and I am sticking to it.

************************************************** *************

Reggie Smithers wrote:
Chuck,
I agree that the Seahawks were robbed, I don't agree that their was a
conspiracy.


Conspiracy would be an overstatement.

The Seahawks had a good chance to win this thing, because Pittsburgh
was so lame.
Did the Steelers get more than one or two first downs in the entire
first half?

If Seattle had palyed up to its potential, it could have prevailed
against the team the Steelers put on the field yesterday, obviously
biased referees or not. Seattle did not.

If both teams had brought their best stuff (and neither did), it would
have been interesting to see whether the Seahawks could beat a team
with a few extra men on the field. :-)

wrote in message
oups.com...

Reggie Smithers wrote:
Chuck,
I agree that the Seahawks were robbed, I don't agree that their was a
conspiracy.


Conspiracy would be an overstatement.

The Seahawks had a good chance to win this thing, because Pittsburgh
was so lame.
Did the Steelers get more than one or two first downs in the entire
first half?

If Seattle had palyed up to its potential, it could have prevailed
against the team the Steelers put on the field yesterday, obviously
biased referees or not. Seattle did not.

If both teams had brought their best stuff (and neither did), it would
have been interesting to see whether the Seahawks could beat a team
with a few extra men on the field. :-)

What the hell was with the Seahawks game management in the last two minutes
of each half? They looked utterly confused

P. Fritz wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
Reggie Smithers wrote:
Chuck,
I agree that the Seahawks were robbed, I don't agree that their was a
conspiracy.

Conspiracy would be an overstatement.

The Seahawks had a good chance to win this thing, because Pittsburgh
was so lame.
Did the Steelers get more than one or two first downs in the entire
first half?

If Seattle had palyed up to its potential, it could have prevailed
against the team the Steelers put on the field yesterday, obviously
biased referees or not. Seattle did not.

If both teams had brought their best stuff (and neither did), it would
have been interesting to see whether the Seahawks could beat a team
with a few extra men on the field. :-)

What the hell was with the Seahawks game management in the last two minutes
of each half? They looked utterly confused




That might have been the most f/u 2 min drill I have ever seen.

--
Reggie
************************************************** *************
That's my story and I am sticking to it.

************************************************** *************

wrote in message
oups.com...

Reggie Smithers wrote:
Chuck,
I agree that the Seahawks were robbed, I don't agree that their was a
conspiracy.


Conspiracy would be an overstatement.

The Seahawks had a good chance to win this thing, because Pittsburgh
was so lame.
Did the Steelers get more than one or two first downs in the entire
first half?

If Seattle had palyed up to its potential, it could have prevailed
against the team the Steelers put on the field yesterday, obviously
biased referees or not. Seattle did not.

If both teams had brought their best stuff (and neither did), it would
have been interesting to see whether the Seahawks could beat a team
with a few extra men on the field. :-)


If the receiver could have caught the balls right to him, they may have
scored more.

On Mon, 06 Feb 2006 09:54:06 -0800, chuckgould.chuck wrote:


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.

Uh, someone should tell this guy, it isn't getting "the ball across the
goal line". It's breaking "the plane" of the goal line. The difference
is close to two feet (the width of the painted line, plus the length of
the ball). FWIW, it looked like a touchdown to me.

"thunder" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 06 Feb 2006 09:54:06 -0800, chuckgould.chuck wrote:


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.

Uh, someone should tell this guy, it isn't getting "the ball across the
goal line". It's breaking "the plane" of the goal line. The difference
is close to two feet (the width of the painted line, plus the length of
the ball). FWIW, it looked like a touchdown to me.

Seeing that you focused on this one play, I guess you think all the other
lousy officiating was OK?

Let me guess...........you are a Steelers part time fan (whenever they make
it to the Superbowl, and when not you jump on the bandwagon of whatever team
won).........right? ;-)

I could really care less who won and I did see plenty of bad officiating,
mainly hurting the SeaHawks.

Pittsburgh did not play anywhere close to championship caliber. I don't
think even a true Steelers fan could be proud of that win.

On Mon, 06 Feb 2006 18:21:07 -0500, JimH wrote:


Seeing that you focused on this one play, I guess you think all the other
lousy officiating was OK?

I didn't watch the whole game. So, I couldn't comment on anything in the
second half.

Let me guess...........you are a Steelers part time fan (whenever they
make it to the Superbowl, and when not you jump on the bandwagon of
whatever team won).........right? ;-)

Actually, no, Jim, the teams I root for were a long, long, time gone.

" JimH" jimh_osudad@yahooDOT comREMOVETHIS wrote in message
...

"thunder" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 06 Feb 2006 09:54:06 -0800, chuckgould.chuck wrote:


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.

Uh, someone should tell this guy, it isn't getting "the ball across the
goal line". It's breaking "the plane" of the goal line. The
difference
is close to two feet (the width of the painted line, plus the length of
the ball). FWIW, it looked like a touchdown to me.

Seeing that you focused on this one play, I guess you think all the
other
lousy officiating was OK?

Let me guess...........you are a Steelers part time fan (whenever they
make
it to the Superbowl, and when not you jump on the bandwagon of whatever
team
won).........right? ;-)

I could really care less who won and I did see plenty of bad
officiating,
mainly hurting the SeaHawks.

Pittsburgh did not play anywhere close to championship caliber. I
don't
think even a true Steelers fan could be proud of that win.


I think it was a touchdown, the ball clearly crossed the plane. But I
don't think the pass interference call should have been made, nor the
"illegal block"......I still wonder how one make an illegal block when they
are on defense and trying to make a tackle. Didn't see the hold, but that
doesn't mean it didn't happen. I still am in amazement about the Seahawks
two minute drills.