Super Bowl: Fulltime

Seattle did not play their best game, but it's impossible to win when the calls are as awful as they were in this game. 14 points were taken from Seattle, 7 given to Pittsburgh, because of 2 bad calls: the interference in the endzone and the hold on the play before Hasselbeck's interception. neither was a legit penalty, and that was 14 points taken from the Seahawks. maybe Pittsburgh goes on a game-winning drive after Seattle scores; maybe they make other plays. but the truth of the matter is they did not make the plays; the zebras did. they got them wrong. the interference was so ticky-tack; as Steve Young said, it was not a penalty but a touchdown. and John Madden was crystal clear on the hold: it did not happen.

the cliche is that a champion overcomes things like bad calls. it depends. when i was a kid, the Rams got a chance at the playoffs taken away when the refs shorted them a down at the end of the game. the 49ers brought instant replay to the NFL when they were ripped off the Bears (i think it was) and kept from the playoffs. and the Hawks against the Jets, early in Holmgren's time. this was a close game. neither team did very well. but the difference was not the Randle El pass, nor any other play. it was 2 bad calls by the refs. what a terrible shame.

Super Bowl: Halftime

it wouldn't be so egregious if the Seahawks didn't have a history of being on the wrong side of the calls. the worst to date, of course, was the Testaverde "touchdown" that kept the Hawks out of the playoffs about 5 years ago. the touchdown they took away from Jackson was awful; there was no push-off. the ref called that out of fear of being wrong, but he was wrong. the Steeler touchdown was closer, but still looked as if they got it wrong.

the holding call on the punt return was bad, too. there were hands to the chest and nothing grabbed. a clean block, and the ref, who was blocked on the play, called it on a guess.

the big play, in my mind, was not Roethlisberger making the long pass to Ward; it was Boulware not knocking it down. he went for an interception and got muscled out of the way. had he just slapped it down -- he was in position to do so -- then Pittsburgh punts and Seattle maybe marches down field.

still, the Seahawks played the better game. if they cut out the mistakes, the Steelers cannot stop their offense. and they have more of a hold on Pittburgh's offense. the Steelers can't run; the Seahawks are getting just a bit more. Alexander is much more likely to go off on a big one than Parker. if the Seahawks can force a punt after the kickoff, they can take the lead back and push it. Hasselbeck is having a very good game; he can easily ratchet that to great and win this game. but the Hawks have to stop the stupid mistakes. that's the only reason they're behind. they have been the better team. the second half is when they can prove it and make it matter.

XL - and the silliness is getting deep

Joey Porter of the Steelers is taking himself way too seriously. talking about taking people out, paybacks for guarantees, jeez. What a doofus. It's like these guys who make a tackle halfway thru the first quarter and jump around as if it were the play of the game. By the 4th quarter, their ass is dragging and they give up a game-winning field goal. Or a lineman makes a sack and does a victory whatever -- but his team is already losing 35-3, so what's with that?

Apparently football smarts do not require real smarts. That's ok. They should just keep cameras and microphones away from these guys. The game is going to be fun; living here in the Pacific Northwest, the idea of the Seahawks as champs is pretty damn intoxicating. But it's just a game. It's not as if it were truly important to the world and all of history -- after all, it's not the 49ers.