Poor Officiating Mars Super Bowl XL

I am neither a Seahawks fan nor a Steelers hater. I watched Super Bowl XL hoping for an entertaining game, but came away with a bad taste in my mouth.

The NFL's Super Bowl officiating crew is said to be comprised of the best refs the league has to offer. How, then, did this crew manage to make a series of blunders that uniformly favored the Steelers (for all intents and purposes, the "home" team)?


 * In the first quarter, Darrell Jackson's touchdown reception was nullified as a result of a bogus offensive pass interference call. Seattle was then forced to settle for a field goal.
 * In the second quarter, Ben Roethlisberger was awarded a touchdown on third and goal despite seeming to come up just short of the goal line. Three points became seven for Pittsburgh.
 * In the fourth quarter, with the game still up for grabs, a questionable holding penalty on Seattle's Sean Locklear erased a Jerramy Stevens catch that would have put Seattle at the one yard line with four chances to punch it in. Instead...
 * Matt Hasselbeck threw a boneheaded interception, but did his best to make up for it with a nice tackle on the return. Incredibly, the officials flagged Hasselbeck for a 15-yard personal foul (for a "low block" - a rule which does not apply to hits made on the ball carrier).

Like I said, I'm not a Seahawks fan. But this Super Bowl made me long for the day when robotic replacements are ready to supplant error-prone NFL officials.

--NationInChicago 06:22, 6 February 2006 (PST)