Super Blah XL...forgedaboudit

Josh Martin

            Super Bowl XL turned out to be the most lackluster Super Bowl in recent history. With the officiating being not on par with the rest of the post-season officiating, it was dismal. The Steelers won the Super Bowl with the lowest quarterback rating in recorded history, and won on what were two hail-marys.

            Super Bowl XL, dubbed “Xtra Long” by media and sports writers, showed little in the way of the Steelers patented contrived offense, and more of a dominant offensive setting from the Seahawks. Ben Rothlisberger had a stat line of 9 for 21 in passing, well below 50 percent, on top of the facts that he threw one interception and no touchdowns. This performance by far was the worst of his post-season play, as well as one of the worst of the year for him.

            One play ominous for Big Ben will be his 3^rd and 1 call, running a bootleg to the left, diving, and getting met mid air. It looked from all replays that he was stopped before the line, and appeared to even fumble the ball backward before placing it over the line.

The official in the booth said his opinion was “the ball didn’t appear to break the plane of the line, but it’s not at my judgment.”

The other call was a very controversial pass interference. Darrell Jackson looked to catch a very obvious touchdown in the first quarter, putting the Seahawks up 10-7.

After a complaint from the visibly angered Steeler defender, the referee reached into his pocket to pull the pass interference flag—a call that cannot be challenged. On review by the announcers, John Madden and Al Michaels, there was no evidence of pass interference and in fact the Steelers defender was grabbing onto Jackson’s jersey, justifying the push off. Matt Hasselbeck, Seattles quarterback, was very upset, sighting the fact his receiver had been pushed on.

            “You would hope the ref’s would not call such ticky-tacky calls,” said John Madden, “You want the players to win it on the field, and the ref’s may have taken it out of their hands.”

            Those two calls would have swayed the final verdict of a game, marred by bad calls and indecision. The referees were instructed to call penalties first and sort them out later, which, in the end came, was the downfall of the Seahawks. When ESPN polled the viewing audience of whether they thought the officiating was even, 75 percent of the audience thought it was visibly swayed to the Steelers.

            In all fairness, Jerome Bettis, the 5^th best running back in NFL history, runs his bus into the garage, ending what will be a hall of fame career. He’s one of the most friendly, and well respected running backs in the National Football League.