Throw a flag on these Super Bowl referees (editorial)

[TheWebHead]

BY JASON WHITLOCK
Kansas City Star

The Seahawks justifiably can complain that Sunday's one-sided officiating disrupted their offensive rhythm and undermined their focus. The officiating had to creep inside their head.

And NFL fans need to acknowledge that there's something terribly wrong with professional football. This year's playoffs were horrible. Sunday's Super Bowl stands as an appropriate symbol of the 2006 playoffs_boring and poorly officiated.

We are too technologically advanced, and the NFL is overrun with too much money to put up with the kind of officiating errors that are ruining the pro game. The league needs younger, full-time referees on the field and a three-man officiating team sitting in the press box supervising what is called on the field. All calls - including ones like the offensive pass-interference call that killed Seattle - should be subject to quick review and overturning.

...Bill Leavy and his crew ruined Super Bowl XL. Am I the only one who would like to hear them defend their incompetence?

more:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/football/13801313.htm

[Blue_Tires]

1. the football writer for foxsports.net

also had a scathing column...

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

30. As did Michael Smith of ESPN

[SeattleGirl]

2. Good! Just shows it's not sour grapes on the part of the

Seahawks fans. If the other team wins fair and square, I can accept that, but when they win because of shitty calls, then I don't accept it.

[Robeson]

4. Most sports boards I've read from various sites, say the..

...Ref's stunk it up to the Steelers advantage. I agree. I will say, however, Holmgren's management of the game left a lot to be desired.

Sorry for the loss SeattleGirl. I was feeling bad for you... :-(

[SeattleGirl]

5. Thanks darlin' Robeson.

And I don't disagree that the Hawks could have done better, but if they were going to lose anyway, I'd rather it be just because they played worse than the Steelers, not because the refs helped them out with crappy calls.

[Robeson]

8. I agree...

...:hug:

[SeattleGirl]

9. Thanks for the hug, my friend.

:hug:

[flamingyouth]

12. I was thinking of you today.

:hug:

[SeattleGirl]

14. Thank you, darlin' flamingyouth!

Hugs are definitely on the menu after that game! :hug:

[ClayZ]

26. Wasn't it pathetic! I was watching with my grandkids...

I am no fan, but the kids are. How sad that such blatant cheating went on. We expect to teach sportsmanship...

It matters not if you win or loose, but how you play the game. *And if the refs have any ethics.

[HuckleB]

42. It's not sour grapes.

People are seriously wondering about the general integrity of the NFL today.

Still, a lot of us in the northwest, including most Seattle folk that I know are glad that Paul Allen lost.

Sorry.

[kid a]

3. I saw one shitty call - then i was out of the house for a while

That was definately a TD by Jackson - NIT PICKY, CHEAP CALL

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. Oh, gee

Yeah, if a sportswriter says it, it must be right. :eyes:

[SeattleGirl]

7. Aw come on, OR

Don't piss on my parade any more than it already has been! :loveya:

[Oeditpus Rex]

10. I ain't pissin' on anything

All I know is bad calls are made in every game, but in number they aren't anywhere near as great as the plays that aren't properly executed. And that's where a game is won or lost.

Do calls influence a game? You damned betcha. Do they win or lose one? No freakin' way.

But :loveya: anyway.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

31. it's not just A sportswriter

it's about 5 or 6 of the best NFL guys in the business.

[Robeson]

11. "The league needs younger, full-time referees ".....

....I've been screaming about this forever. The NFL is a multi-billion dollar industry. It really is laughable that a multi-billion dollar sports industry, would not have full-time referees. Actually considereding the money the NFL generates, there really is no logical reason not to have full-time refs. Their payroll would be pocket-change compared to the billions raked in.

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. Now, *that* I wholeheartedly agree with

Major league baseball employs its umpires. Why does the NFL "rent" its? :shrug:

[SeattleGirl]

15. Because they're cheap!

I would definiely go for full time refs in the NFL!

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. But how would they justify it

since they work only one day a week? What would they do the other six days? :shrug:

[SeattleGirl]

17. Study the games they've ref'd.

Look to see if they fucked up, and work at NOT fucking up again.

[Robeson]

18. Study film. Work on their "art", just like the players have to do....

...12 months a year. Football is a year 'round business nowadays. There's just too much money involved for the refs not to be just as professional as the rest. They should have to live up to the same standards.

[SeattleGirl]

19. Exactly, Robeson!

They should be as good at what they do as are the men on the field playing the game.

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. Yeah, but would that take four or five days a week?

Players watch tape one or two days a week. 'Course, a lot of 'em do it on their own time, too, especially quarterbacks. But I just can't see refs needing the rest of the week for that.

The only other things I can think of are speaking engagements on behalf of the NFL and maybe teaching officiating to ensure a good crop of future refs.

[Robeson]

21. Not just films. It would also include working out, like players, so...

...that they stay in top physical condition, in order to try and keep up as best they can with 20 "something" year old guys, because these 20 somethings are moving a hell of lot more faster than 60 year old fat guys. I'm 42. I'm not as fast as I was at 25, my eyesights not as good, and my hearing ain't what it used to be. Now, when I see some 60 year old guy out there with a paunch, is his any better?

Also, your ideas of speaking engagements, and teaching clinics is also a great idea. Also, teams have mini camps, training camps, team meetings, etc., throughout the year. Have them do seminars with teams, educating them to rule changes, and what crews will be watching. Have them oversee practices to help instruct. In fact, some teams hire ex-refs or college refs to do exactly that. It would easily be a full-time job, and the tasks they could do would be limitless. These ideas are just scratching the tip of the iceberg. It would only make the game better. How could there be an argument against that?..:shrug:

[Oeditpus Rex]

25. There's no way the league would let a ref inside a camp

Refs know the game, not just the rules, and they'd quickly get familiar with a team's playbook and tendencies if they watched them practice. That would make them even more of a target for gamblers, and the league won't have any part of something like that.

Besides, I'd wager most refs wouldn't want to know what a team is likely to do on second and 6, for example. I base this on the knowledge that baseball umpires don't want to know what pitch is coming when they have the plate because it makes them more liable to call it based on what they think it's gonna do.

[Robeson]

27. Sorry dude, it's already been done.....

...the Jets did it under Herm Edwards. They hired NFL officials, during the offseason, to review their practices in order to instruct them on what they maybe doing wrong with respect to rule violations. That precedent has already been set. Now, wouldn't you rather it be regulated by the NFL, than a particular team wineing and dining that ref?....

[Oeditpus Rex]

28. Are you shitting me?

Well, huh. I guess I'll go sit in the corner and keep my mouth shut.



Damn, I wish it were baseball season...

[fishnfla]

37. Sherman had refs in the Packer camp all the time

not that it helped any

[HuckleB]

43. Dude, it's big business.

Super Bowl sites are voted upon with a secret ballot, but the owners often vote for sites based on the perks promised to them. They've got no integrity, and I don't think anything would be beneath them. The NFL is just another outpost of the kind of folks who now inhabit the White House. There's no way to put anything out of the realm of possibility.

[Fox Mulder]

22. The Powers-That-Be wanted the Steelers to win.

The media wanted them to win. Many fans wanted them to win. The NFL wanted them to win.

I think the SB was fixed, IMHO.

[insanity]

23. The officiating was terrible

The phantom holding, "push-off", and that tackle Hass made that was ruled illegal block in the back (I'm still trying to figure that one out). Two of the bunk calls would have changed the final score as one was a TD and the other was a catch on the 1.

[Baclava]

24. Squawk!...squawk!...squawk!

Wah Wah - Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Go ahead kids, more sour grapes for your 'whine', this is good.

LMAO!!!

[DS1]

33. Sore Loserman?

If your win doesn't mean shit, I'd be less likely to complain about people 'squaking'

[JVS]

38. Booohoohoo!

[Efilroft Sul]

29. The offensive pass interference call was bogus but...

...it did not kill Seattle. Even if they got the TD +1, they still would've lost by four. Whitlock doesn't know WTF he's talking about.

In the end, Seattle killed Seattle. Poor clock management, horrible play calls, and holding -- yes, the Hawks held the Steelers all bloody game, and the team and their fans act like they were poor innocents robbed at gunpoint when the refs actually called them on it.

Sure, the sentimental favorite was Pittsburgh, and the game was practically held in the Steelers' back yard. But in the end, none of that matters. In a game that featured sloppy play in the first half by both teams and tons of penalties, the Steelers overcame their mistakes and the Hawks didn't. And that is the bottom line.

[DS1]

32. This editorial is well intentioned, but completely

FUCKING WRONG!

We don't need more refs, supervisors, replay cameras, judiciary committees or anything else.

We need LESS RULES! The game is so overly complex now that it's no wonder at all that there are SO MANY fuckups in officiating.

The rules are mostly shit, anyway, and make the game completely out of balance. A catcher pushes off a defender in the endzone to get away from him - Penalty. That's just a little push, the same sort of thing people playing at home do all the time.

Now, the same catcher, after having caught the ball, is subject to possibly the most brutal collision imaginable with another player. That's encouraged. There's no logic in this imbalance, none whatsover.

[GalleryGod]

36. I liked the editorial better

Made more sense and wasn't fraught with F-Bombs.:shrug:

[DS1]

41. Post of picture of the Sopranos and complain about F-Bombs

You'd make a great Ref

[GalleryGod]

48. Glad you caught the Irony...C+

:crazy:

[underpants]

39. Two points- "all star crews" and gaining an advantage

First-they need to get rid of all star crews and having WHOLE crews, who constanly work together, to call the game. The best TEAM should be rewarded just like the players.

Secondly- aside from stupid rule (see "football type move" etc.) a "did they gain an advantage" standard needs to be applied. That push off call was bad because it didn't appear that he gained any advantage with that hand check. Likewise for most interference calls the "gained advantage" question needs to be answered. Also the spot of the ball shouldn't be reviewable as that is like calling balls and strikes-very inexact ( a DVR proves this beyond a doubt) and very subjective. That call on the goal line was horrible.

[bleedingheart]

45. you are right...No more rules! and they should play with hatchets, maces

and other weaponry...bwahahahha

[DS1]

46. YAY! You're SMRT!

:eyes:

[Junkdrawer]

34. Football now "officially" joins Studio Wrestling as rigged entertainment..

for low-brows.

And the funny thing was that, as the game began and all the players were introduced, I joked to my son "See..they say football is a violent, low-class sport, but all the players are college grads." :silly:

[GalleryGod]

35. So VERY GLAD that Nightnurse and I did THIS, instead !

Center Orchestra, 7th Row, on the aisle.Jonathan Pryce was magnificent!

And No One THREW A FLAG:sarcasm:

[tigereye]

40. hmm how is it then

that with all the same type of supposedly bad officiating that went against us in all of the play-off games (which we barely made it into and still managed to win all three), that we managed to win those as well?

It wasn't a pretty game, we didn't do well in a lot of areas, but this stuff is serious sour grapes. C'mon, show some support for the rust-belt Dem city underdogs!

YAY STEELERS!

[Quixote1818]

47. It wasn't called that bad

Their were some tough calls that could have gone either way. They happened to fall the Steelers way.

Like it or not the guy did push off in the end zone. That push off may have given him enough forward momentum to make the catch. They still would have lost by 4 points.

The Steeler Q-back's touch down was a close call, that could have gone either way. Even with the instant replay, it was hard to tell if the ball crossed the line. You have to go with the ref on the field.

[LibertyLover]

44. What I know

about football could be written in capital letters on the head of a pin. But I enjoy the game and I am getting better about understanding some of the plays and calls. I am glad to know that I'm not the only one who thought the referees made bad calls in last night's game. It really appeared to me that they were biased towards the Steelers. Granted that the Seahawks did not playas well as they did in some of the playoff games, but then again, neither did the Stealers until practically the 4th quarter.

[realisticphish]

49. I'd rather throw a flag on NFL refs in general

in recent years, i've seen more and more bad calls, or at least violation of one of the football creeds: let the boys play.

Holding happens on every single play of every single game; it's up to the refs to call it, and this means that they can basically choose when a play will be negated. I'm not saying get rid of the holding penalty, but if nothing else, it should be called MORE. Make the players stop holding, and it's no longer a problem. This is the problem: consistency. It's the same beef I have with NHL refs

The seahawks lost the game, fair and square; they fucked up more than enough to lose. But if I were a steelers fan, I would MUCH MUCH MUCH rather not have all this stuff tainting the victory. So instead of saying "neener neener, stop bitching" you steeler fans could perhaps look at the disputed calls from a strict fairness viewpoint. (and none of that bullshit about how you got cheated earlier in the playoffs, thus it's fair. This is about each individual game, and the fairness to each team)