If ever there was a Superbowl.....

[Avenging Hayseed]

That looked Rigged. THAT was IT! All I can say is WOW....:eek:

[junk]

I just thought it was poorly executed by both teams.

Not to mention poorly officiated.

Seattle, IMO, outplayed the Steelers.

[CowboyWay]

I agree with Avenging Hayseed.

that was the worst officiating I've ever seen, and I didn't care who won that game.

The NFL should be ashamed

[Cbz40]

Yes I would say it was rather "DULL". Poorly executed from several aspects.....which have been mentioned.

[big dog cowboy]

That looked Rigged. THAT was IT! All I can say is WOW....:eek:
:hammer:

[ghst187]

That looked Rigged. THAT was IT! All I can say is WOW....:eek:

definitely a lot of calls all going in one direction.
there were some questionable holding calls against Seattle and some blatant ones not called against Pitt but what really made me sit up in my chair was how quick the ref came back after reviewing the Roth TD and saying it was a TD. Even when a call is blatantly obvious, the ref sits over there for the full 25 minutes looking at the play. This guy made a token gesture to look under the hood for 2 seconds and comes back excited calling it a TD. Whether he got the ball to the goaline was at best questionable, it didn't look like he did to me, but it really didn't seem like the ref was even entertaining the idea that it might've not been a TD.
If the game was fixed, I think Hasselback was the only one not in on it. The rest of the Seattle players looked like they were down with it. Alexander put on his usual show of not running too hard, the WRs dropped every pass that might be important, and the entire team including the coaches, save Hasselback, looked totally uninspired to play in the SB. No passion whatsoever. Then, 4th down, down 21-10 at midfield with 5 minutes left and Holmgren punts it? ? Wow, grow a sack dude.
that was flat out the worst SB I've ever seen with two lukewarm teams and very little action, not to mention little drama. total suckfest. Poor officiating performance too. If those are the best two teams and best coaches and best officiating crew the NFL has, then the whole league sucks, needs to shrink by about 5 teams, go to full time refs, redo the playoff format.

[Avenging Hayseed]

Its not that im a Seattle fan or anything. Its just that in 30 years of watching pro football I dont think Ive ever seen anything like this. Surely not in a Superbowl. Not trying to be a conspiracy nut but man something just doesnt smell right about this AT ALL....

[lcharles]

We have witnessed history. On SI cover of the Steeler Superbowl publication They should just put a yellow flag.

I am less a fan now than I was 4 hours ago.

[ghst187]

kind of reminds me of the Bulls vs Seattle Sonics NBA Finals series...
no way in hades the refs were letting the Bulls NOT win the title after winning 72 games that season, the league was due simply to make too much money by the Bulls winning because no one had any marketing power except for Jordan at the time. The biggest rip off that season though was the Eastern finals against the Pacers though, that was a horrible embarrassment to "unbiased" officiating everywhere.

[wxcpo]

Truly the worst superbowl I have seen and I have seen'em all since superbowl X. Seattle was able to move the ball at will against the Steelers defense, the only opponent they couldn't beat today was the guys in black and white stripes.

I think the NFL offices should take a hard lok at this crew and some of the calls they made today because they cost Seattle a championship. The TD called back because of offensive pass interference and the catch that put Seattle at Pittsburgh 1 yard line that was called back because of holding.

Of course none of that stuff will be looked at because it's a feel good story. The Steelers, the first 6th seed to win it all and tie the 49ers and Cowboys for most all time.

[Avenging Hayseed]

What really blew my mind was the blocking below the waist call on Hasselback. Ive never even heard of that being called on a defensive player which HE WAS after he threw the int. HUH???? I was actually getting a sick disgusted feeling watching that FIASCO. Anybody else notice that in the commercials in between ALMOST ALL of them were steelers holding the trophy? I DID.

[jimmy40]

kind of reminds me of the Bulls vs Seattle Sonics NBA Finals series...
no way in hades the refs were letting the Bulls NOT win the title after winning 72 games that season, the league was due simply to make too much money by the Bulls winning because no one had any marketing power except for Jordan at the time. The biggest rip off that season though was the Eastern finals against the Pacers though, that was a horrible embarrassment to "unbiased" officiating everywhere.but everyone knows the NBA is a joke when it comes to refs. Hell, they don't even try to hide the fact that the superstars get EVERY call. Remember Patrick Ewing taking five freaking steps without dribling on his way to a layup in the Eastern conference finals?

[Rowdy]

kind of reminds me of the Bulls vs Seattle Sonics NBA Finals series...
no way in hades the refs were letting the Bulls NOT win the title after winning 72 games that season, the league was due simply to make too much money by the Bulls winning because no one had any marketing power except for Jordan at the time. The biggest rip off that season though was the Eastern finals against the Pacers though, that was a horrible embarrassment to "unbiased" officiating everywhere.

Although they were a team of floppers, don't forget the Sacramento-Los Angeles series either...

[punchnjudy]

I agree about this being the worst superbowl I've seen in terms of they're not being one team that stepped up.

The officiating was garbage, but it's not so much that I think Seattle deserved to win - it's just that I don't think Pittsburgh did either.

[Skip]

Its not that im a Seattle fan or anything. Its just that in 30 years of watching pro football I dont think Ive ever seen anything like this. Surely not in a Superbowl. Not trying to be a conspiracy nut but man something just doesnt smell right about this AT ALL....

The game was poorly played and the officiating was worse.

[SultanOfSix]

The credibility of the NFL is slowly shrinking...The F for football is morphing into...

well, take your choice of which F word you want. I have two in mind that I think fit pretty well. One used to be underneath my sig picture.

[Avenging Hayseed]

I cant come right out and say YES this game was fixed. Truth is we wont ever know for sure. But it just doesnt feel right does it? Tell ya something else, it wouldnt take all that much to fix a game would it? A couple calls here and there and ONE routine player in on it, like say a guy like ohhhhhhhh Jeremy Stevens....LOL:o:

[NorthTexan95]

The game was poorly played and the officiating was worse.

The best description of the game.

[JonJon]

but everyone knows the NBA is a joke when it comes to refs. Hell, they don't even try to hide the fact that the superstars get EVERY call. Remember Patrick Ewing taking five freaking steps without dribling on his way to a layup in the Eastern conference finals?

LOL I remember that! As a matter of fact, it was his signiture move...

Sure this game could be blamed on bad calls, but Seattle had their share of miscues too. Bad clock management on both ends of the 1st and 2nd half cost them valuable points. I think that holding call was legit because the guy was still grabbing onto the shoulder pad as he was turning the corner, and was continually held on his way to getting dragged to the ground. The Rothlisburger TD could have gone either way, but you just couldn't tell because of the angle and because you couldn't clearly see the ball. I will say that the pushoff was BS, but I am not really that upset because it was called against Keyshawn in critical games this season too. That penalty against Hasselback was just flat out a bad call though.

[CanadianCowboysFan]

The obvious two non TDs stand out but yeah the block call on Hasselbeck and the non-hold on the 3rd down run with four minutes to go were also big.

[JonJon]

The obvious two non TDs stand out but yeah the block call on Hasselbeck and the non-hold on the 3rd down run with four minutes to go were also big.

Yeah I forgot about that other TD...that should have been reviewed because it looked like he kicked the pileon before his other foot went out of bounds.

[tnbk]

that was flat out the worst SB I've ever seen with two lukewarm teams and very little action, not to mention little drama. total suckfest. Poor officiating performance too. If those are the best two teams and best coaches and best officiating crew the NFL has, then the whole league sucks, needs to shrink by about 5 teams, go to full time refs, redo the playoff format.

best post ever

[BlueStar II]

Yes, it was a rather dull game, and poorly executed by both teams as well, IMO. Let's see if the Pro Bowl next weekend is more exciting than this one was tonight.

[JonJon]

If the game was fixed, I think Hasselback was the only one not in on it. The rest of the Seattle players looked like they were down with it. Alexander put on his usual show of not running too hard, the WRs dropped every pass that might be important, and the entire team including the coaches, save Hasselback, looked totally uninspired to play in the SB. No passion whatsoever. Then, 4th down, down 21-10 at midfield with 5 minutes left and Holmgren punts it? ? Wow, grow a sack dude.
You gotta love that Alexander false start as soon as the camera was on him. Jeremy Stephens had some horrible drops, but so did Hines Ward too.


that was flat out the worst SB I've ever seen with two lukewarm teams and very little action, not to mention little drama. total suckfest. Poor officiating performance too. If those are the best two teams and best coaches and best officiating crew the NFL has, then the whole league sucks, needs to shrink by about 5 teams, go to full time refs, redo the playoff format.

That is a good idea. Next season, the NFL should have an elimination season, in which the 2 sorriest teams get eliminated from the NFL ever year until we get back to 28 teams. That should make the games more exciting, plus the remaining players would be placed in the free agent pool, free to be signed by other teams. If that happened this year, the Texans and the Saints would be gone.

[CanadianCowboysFan]

Yeah I forgot about that other TD...that should have been reviewed because it looked like he kicked the pileon before his other foot went out of bounds.

I meant the push off non-TD which clearly was a brutal call. Good thing they didn't call that type of interference when Irvin was with us, he would have had pass interference on every play.

[Avery]

NBA game - Game 6, '98, Bulls vs. Jazz.

So many things wrong with that game. Howard Eisley's three with two seconds on the shot clock waved off yet the Bulls get a shot off clearly at least a second after the shot clock expired and counts. Won't even mention Jordan's obvious push-off.

I already responded to the officiating in this game in another thread. Bullet point from that is this: Seahawks got screwed on every key play, never the Steelers.

Definitely screwy.

[DLK150]

What really blew my mind was the blocking below the waist call on Hasselback. Ive never even heard of that being called on a defensive player which HE WAS after he threw the int. HUH???? I was actually getting a sick disgusted feeling watching that FIASCO. Anybody else notice that in the commercials in between ALMOST ALL of them were steelers holding the trophy? I DID.

When they said it was on #8, I did a double take and that was it for me. I tried to stay objective, but that play was the call that broke the camel's back. I've never seen that called at any level on a player in pursuit of an opponent. Never. So Hasselbeck was supposed to be blocking for the Steeler?

The BS PI call, the phantom holding call, all the others. You can say Seattle didn't do this or Pittsburgh did that, but those were clear momentum killing, game changing decisions.