Seahawks | Three of the four disputed Super Bowl CL calls were correct

[RamsFan16]

Seahawks | Three of the four disputed Super Bowl CL calls were correct
Thu, 30 Mar 2006 17:14:46 -0800

Mike Sando, of the Tacoma News Tribune, reports NFL officiating director Mike Pereira said three of the four controversial calls during Super Bowl XL were ruled correctly. The holding penalty on Seattle Seahawks OG Sean Locklear, WR Darrell Jackson's pass interference, and Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger's touchdown run were all ruled correctly. He admitted that the officials clearly missed when Seahawks QB Matt Hasselbeck was flagged for an illegal block. Pereira said, "To me, it's a hard game to officiate. With that being said, we have to fight to get better. We had some mistakes in the playoffs and we've had to suffer the consequences."



Thats right. Now the Seahawks can stop crying. They reviewed them 1,234,534,345,345,345,457,867 times and 3 of 4 were correct.

[r8rh8rmike]

Seahawks | Three of the four disputed Super Bowl CL calls were correct
Thu, 30 Mar 2006 17:14:46 -0800

Mike Sando, of the Tacoma News Tribune, reports NFL officiating director Mike Pereira said three of the four controversial calls during Super Bowl XL were ruled correctly. The holding penalty on Seattle Seahawks OG Sean Locklear, WR Darrell Jackson's pass interference, and Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger's touchdown run were all ruled correctly. He admitted that the officials clearly missed when Seahawks QB Matt Hasselbeck was flagged for an illegal block. Pereira said, "To me, it's a hard game to officiate. With that being said, we have to fight to get better. We had some mistakes in the playoffs and we've had to suffer the consequences."



Thats right. Now the Seahawks can stop crying. They reviewed them 1,234,534,345,345,345,457,867 times and 3 of 4 were correct.

Isn't NFL officiating director Mike Pereira reponsible for the performance of NFL officials, most notably the ones chosen for the Super Bowl? 3 of 4 being correct is still subjective and open to interpretation, especially considering who made that determination.

[UtterBlitz]

The 3 calls that they analyzed may have been technically correct, but that does not address how well the game was officiated.

[Nick]

The holding penalty on Seattle Seahawks OG Sean Locklear, WR Darrell Jackson's pass interference, and Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger's touchdown run were all ruled correctly.

Couldn't agree more.

[txramsfan]

Does it matter? Are they going to go back and replay that one play or would they replay the whole game if they suddenly announced a few months later that they blew a call?

No. Let the game end on the field. Including the Super Bowl vs the Patriots. Three things come to mind in that game.

1. Proehl's fumble was a killer
2. Rams didn't take advantage of field position
3. As wonderful as the Warner to Bruce pass to win the Super Bowl against the Titans, the Warner to Ty Law was equally abhorrible. (Is that a word or just a tx slang?)

Had nothing to do with Brady's intentional grounding.

[HUbison]

abhorrable. (Is that a word or just a tx slang?)

Change the second "a" to an "i" and you're in business.

[XxXdragonXxX]

There was holding on Locklear....but the DE was also offsides. Locklear simply prevented the DE from running unabated to his QB and creaming him.

Jackson did push off, but it was after he was held by the DB, and then contacted illegally again before he pushed off. Also the pushoff occured before the ball was thrown so it should have been illegal contact, not pass interference.

Roethlisberger made it in, but Alen Faneca blatantly held (more like a chokehold takedown) Leroy Hill who was in perfect position to make the tackle.

They also didn't mention that Max Starks was illegally downfield on Roethlibergers long pass.

The DE was offsides AGAIN on Hasselbecks INT after the holding call.

And there were 2 blatant penalties on Parkers TD run, Heath Miller holding Bryce Fisher and illegal hands to the face from Max Starks to Lofa Tatupu, both players were in position to make the tackle.


ALL of these penalties you could argue were "ticky tack," but the problem is that they called the ticky tack penalties against the Seahawks but let the Steelers penalties slide. I don't have a problem so much with the penalties they called on the Seahawks, it's the ones they didn't call on the Steelers that bother me.

[r8rh8rmike]

There was holding on Locklear....but the DE was also offsides. Locklear simply prevented the DE from running unabated to his QB and creaming him.

Jackson did push off, but it was after he was held by the DB, and then contacted illegally again before he pushed off. Also the pushoff occured before the ball was thrown so it should have been illegal contact, not pass interference.

Roethlisberger made it in, but Alen Faneca blatantly held (more like a chokehold takedown) Leroy Hill who was in perfect position to make the tackle.

They also didn't mention that Max Starks was illegally downfield on Roethlibergers long pass.

The DE was offsides AGAIN on Hasselbecks INT after the holding call.

And there were 2 blatant penalties on Parkers TD run, Heath Miller holding Bryce Fisher and illegal hands to the face from Max Starks to Lofa Tatupu, both players were in position to make the tackle.


ALL of these penalties you could argue were "ticky tack," but the problem is that they called the ticky tack penalties against the Seahawks but let the Steelers penalties slide. I don't have a problem so much with the penalties they called on the Seahawks, it's the ones they didn't call on the Steelers that bother me.

The officiating in the Super Bowl was just plain bad and intentional or not, favored the Steelers. That being said, if Seahawk fans should be bothered by something it should be the fact that a team who brilliantly battled adversity and bad luck all season long, was not able to rise to the occasion when it mattered most. The penalties put Seattle under the gun, but they still had their chances late in the game to pull out the victory.

IMO, the best team did not win, but the team that played best did.

[XxXdragonXxX]

The officiating in the Super Bowl was just plain bad and intentional or not, favored the Steelers. That being said, if Seahawk fans should be bothered by something it should be the fact that a team who brilliantly battled adversity and bad luck all season long, was not able to rise to the occasion when it mattered most. The penalties put Seattle under the gun, but they still had their chances late in the game to pull out the victory.

IMO, the best team did not win, but the team that played best did.

I agree they did not play a perfect game, however the Steelers made just as many mistakes as the Seahawks did. Roethlisberger played an absolutely horrible game, and the only 2 good plays he made, there were uncalled penalties. Other then that long run by Parker the Steelers did nothing on the ground...and again there were 2 uncalled penalties on that run.

The Seahawks played good enough to win if the game was officiated down the middle.

[ramsbruce]

The Seahawks played good enough to win if the game was officiated down the middle.

Now that's an April Fools Day statement. :tongue: LOL

[BlueTalon]

Look, this horrid officiating goes way beyond the Super Bowl. If some of you Rams fans (emphasis on some) want to cheer the Pereira declaration because you don't like the Seahawks, that's certainly your right, but it's awfully short sighted. IMO the problem wont get fixed as long as Pereira is where he is. I'm really hoping the new commissioner will take the opportunity to fire Pereira and make some significant changes in the way officials do what they do. For one, I'd like to see them hired full time. I'd also like to see them financially penalized for bad calls (bad calls that are left that way and not fixed by replay). There are some other good suggestions out there...

... but to leave everything the way it is, or to try to address it simply by tweaking some rules like holding just is not going to solve anything, and only invites more bad officiating.

[Goldenfleece]

Financially penalize them? Full-time refs are fine with me, and I think they ought to call for replays from the booth (the way they do in the last two minutes of each half ) all game to make sure things don't get missed. That way coaches don't have to decide whether they want to risk a timeout just to try to get the calls right.

Yes, there are problems. Holding is probably the most inconsistently called penalty. If it were being called by the book, Seattle and Pittsburgh probably both would have been called a dozen times more. The Hasselbeck blocking call on the interception didn't even make sense. The Polamalu interception that got overturned in the Colts play-off game last year was one of the worst calls I've ever seen. But the thing is there's no way to make sure the game gets called perfectly every time. We could have robotic refs and GPS systems, a tracking beacon on the ball, and 20 cameras hovering over the field to catch as many angles as possible and there would still be controversial decisions.

The 'Hawks did get the short end of the stick on that game, but I think Pereira was right in terms of whether those calls were penalties. He just fails to mention that there were lots of other penalties uncalled. Jackson was guilty in the endzone, but if they were going to penalize him, Hope should have gotten called out on it, too.

[AvengerRam]

So the Seahawks committed a lot of penalties, but they were all justified.

Hmmm....

That's a new one!

[BlueTalon]

AvengerRam, I don't know how you get that out of the comments so far. (Unless I just missed your meaning.)

I'm trying to get the discussion about officiating away from just the Super Bowl. Throughout the season and in the playoffs, there were bunches of cruddy calls -- probably everyone on this board could name 8 or 10 examples just off the top of their heads. Pereira taking the position he does just guarantees that the status quo will not be changed.

IMO, hiring refs full time is a huge first step. Then they could get training, go to clinics, review rules, review film, etc. year round, and there would never be a drop-off. As it is, players, coaches etc. are thinking about nothing but football (during working hours) throughout the season, while the refs are thinking about teeth or students or whatever else.

And Goldenfleece, you might be sarcastic with your reference to a tracking beacon on the ball, but there's no good reason not to try it. There have just been too many TDs awarded where a guy's helmet or elbow crossed the goal line, but the ball didn't. Heck, they have an automated system in hockey, so the idea isn't unprecedented. Technoligically, it wouldn't take much to put a beacon in both ends of the football, and sensors along the goal line. Then, there could be a computer model of just the field and the ball on one monitor, and you could tell instantly if the ball crossed the goal line, what path it took to get there, how high off the ground it was, what its attitude (pitch and yaw) was, etc.

There are all kinds of things that could be tried. The only thing that's stopping them is the attitude that nothing is broke.

[Goldenfleece]

And Goldenfleece, you might be sarcastic with your reference to a tracking beacon on the ball, but there's no good reason not to try it. There have just been too many TDs awarded where a guy's helmet or elbow crossed the goal line, but the ball didn't.

Actually FIFA has experimented with goal line technology as well. It's pretty simple, too. There's a microchip in the ball and sensors across the plane. If and win the ball goes through, they activate. We could even have them light up or shoot off sparklers or something if the league wanted to. But you'd probably still run into arguments about whether the ball-carrier was down by contact yet when the ball got across. I don't think it's a bad idea to look for ways to improve the officiating, but I think at some point you have to put it in perspective and acknowledge not everything is going to be called straight down the line.