Great point by Balta, extending your arm doesn't automatically mean you pushed off like so many think. The arm was extended by Jackson, but he didn't push AT ALL, therefore IMO was a very bad call.

Well I said 34-10, it was 21-10. I think we can all still agree I'm a genius.

ESPN is supposedly flipping their front page to feature the bad officiating by the bottom of the hour.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs05/n...tory?id=2321024

 

I love pro athletes...

I give the media credit, I have heard the words "horrible officiating" and "fix" A LOT more than I thought I would today. That game was VERY suspecious and I'm glad people are talking about it.

I give the media credit, I have heard the words "horrible officiating" and "fix" A LOT more than I thought I would today.  That game was VERY suspecious and I'm glad people are talking about it.

I'm still against the idea of a "fix", but I think it's very hard to deny horrible officiating when some 90 million Americans are watching.

Officiating in sports seems to be at an all-time low. In my opinion its because the refs don't have enough accountability. You don't see refs getting suspended and fined for bad calls in games. It happens, but very rarely. Players mess up, they get benched, cut, or traded to the Knicks. Ref's mess up, ho hum, another day at the office.

IMO, officiating in football is bad because the refs are all f***ed up, using instant replay as a crutch rather than trying to just make the right call.

 

Basketball refs are so bad simply because the players are so big, strong, and athletic that the refs just can't keep up. Just my $0.02.

Antwaan Randle El's quarterback rating was 135.7 points higher than Super Bowl XL-winning quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's -- 158.3-22.6

ESPN.com finally flipped to cover mainly the officiating. This piece by Bayless hits on the refs, and this Michael Smith piece has been up all morning. But as usual...the interesting stuff is in The Poll

 

1) What grade would you give referee Bill Leavy's officiating crew for Super Bowl XL?

 

46.2% F

26.0% D

15.9% C

10.1% B

1.9% A

 

3) Did the officiating in Sunday's game unfairly favor one team?

 

77.3% Unfairly favored the Steelers

17.6% The right calls were made

5.1% Unfairly favored the Seahawks

 

4) Which played the biggest role in determining the outcome of the game?

 

53.3% Officials missing calls

32.0% Seahawks not making plays

14.7% Steelers making plays

 

5) Do you think the official made the right call on Darrell Jackson's offensive pass interference in the endzone, negating a Seattle touchdown in the first quarter?

 

72.1% No

21.8% Yes

6.1% I'm not sure

 

7) Do you think the official made the right call on Sean Locklear's holding penalty in the fourth quarter, negating an 18-yard reception to the one-yard line by Jerramy Stevens?

 

72.7% No

16.3% Yes

10.9% I'm not sure

 

10) Which major sport has the best officials?

 

43.3% MLB

22.6% NHL

20.8% NBA

13.2% NFL

Man, saying the NFL has worse officials than the NBA...that's one heck of an insult.

Damn those are crazy numbers.

ESPN.com finally flipped to cover mainly the officiating.  This piece by Bayless hits on the refs, and this Michael Smith piece has been up all morning.  But as usual...the interesting stuff is in The Poll

 

Man, saying the NFL has worse officials than the NBA...that's one heck of an insult.

obviously the reffing from last night was still fresh in people's minds, because the NBA's reffing is by far the worst...and I'd bet very few of these voters could make a slightly educated judgement on NHL refs.

 

some games are officiated worse than others, but some of the calls people are b****ing about (such as Woody Paige, who's a complete windbag if you ask me) aren't really that inexcusable. in the first replay it was still difficult to tell if anybody got a hand on Hasselbeck, and I still think Darrell Jackson did push off.

obviously the reffing from last night was still fresh in people's minds, because the NBA's reffing is by far the worst...and I'd bet very few of these voters could make a slightly educated judgement on NHL refs.

 

some games are officiated worse than others, but some of the calls people are b****ing about (such as Woody Paige, who's a complete windbag if you ask me) aren't really that inexcusable.  in the first replay it was still difficult to tell if anybody got a hand on Hasselbeck, and I still think Darrell Jackson did push off.

If you couldn't see the guy getting a hand on hasselbeck, I'm amazed you could see Jackson even touch the DB. Hasselbeck had his shirt clearly grabbed on the way down. I'll grant it was only obvious from 1 angle, but from that angle it was incredibly obvious. Had the refs not overturned that call...that'd have been enough for me to say they were bought off. Because they did overturn it, I just think they stank.

If you couldn't see the guy getting a hand on hasselbeck, I'm amazed you could see Jackson even touch the DB.  Hasselbeck had his shirt clearly grabbed on the way down.  I'll grant it was only obvious from 1 angle, but from that angle it was incredibly obvious.  Had the refs not overturned that call...that'd have been enough for me to say they were bought off.  Because they did overturn it, I just think they stank.

I said the first replay, it was obvious on the second, and if you are at all unaware, the action sort of moves fast.

 

from what I first saw, it looked like Darrell Jackson pushed off. I'll look closer to see if Darrell Jackson didn't push off, I was somewhat distracted when they were replaying it. I thought he did though. I saw the play, saw the flag thrown, said "Push-off" and saw a replay and went back to what I was currently doing. I thought he pushed off.

 

EDIT: just saw it on again PTI, and it wasn't much of a push-off, but still, a push-off. now the Hasselbeck call (when he was called for a 15-yard penalty for essentially tackling below the waist) was wrong.

Edited February 6, 200620 yr by AirScott

Well id say Baseball/Hockey the refs/umpires are much better than football/basketball..... that being said nothing is worse than the NBA its horrid.... I actually think the college basketball refs are much better.

Some "fun" with pictures from the game. Make your own judgements from the pic's.

 

The "TD" by Roethlisberger.

 

The "hold" on Locklear.

 

The "push off" on Jackson.

The refs were horrible. How is there any debate?

i thought the roflsberger td call was pretty accurate at the time, i thought i saw it break the plane. and the d-jack interference, there was some pushing, it's a judgement call.

no doubt there were some bad calls, but two that weren't were Darrell Jackson's pass interference and Big Ben's TD. Jackson had his arms fully extended, to me that constitutes a push-off. Big Ben's TD was very close, but look at that picture that was put up here; it hurts my eyes and looks like a little of the ball still could have crossed the plane.

 

now every other call people have brought up was a bad call, no question.

no doubt there were some bad calls, but two that weren't were Darrell Jackson's pass interference and Big Ben's TD.  Jackson had his arms fully extended, to me that constitutes a push-off.  Big Ben's TD was very close, but look at that picture that was put up here; it hurts my eyes and looks like a little of the ball still could have crossed the plane.

 

now every other call people have brought up was a bad call, no question.

I think I 1/2 agree with you. Those 2 calls fit my definition of "questionable". I can't see the ball on the Roethlisberger one, so I can't say for sure whether or not it slightly pierced the goal line at any point. If it did it was very slight, but I haven't seen evidence that convinces me either way (we should try putting GPS tags on those balls). Probably the right thing to do was just go with the ruling on the field. Problem is...I think the ref on the field ruled based on the fact that Ben stretched out after the play was several seconds past over and pushed the ball over the goal line...that's when he signaled, so the ref didn't signal anything based on the stop itself. So who knows.

 

The Jackson one...I think that one's even more questionable...that depends on how tightly the game is being called. If you're calling that much of a push, then the odds are you could have called that same push off 4-5 other times during the game. Almost every receiver out there is saying "Yeah, it was a pushoff, but there's no way they ever call one that's so weak". So maybe it was a pushoff, but there's just no uniform standard for what constitutes a penalty for a pushoff. If I apply 1 newton of force, is it a pushoff? what about 10? etc.

 

The others...yeah those were really bad. But the thing which probably bothers me the most is not that they were really bad, but that they all went against 1 team. Not only the questionable ones...the bad ones too.

The NFL is investigating and may consider fining Holmgren over his remarks on the officiating.

 

Yeah, that's smart NFL, the entire country scoffs at the officiating in your signature event, and then you decide to go and give them reason to pay attention for even longer! These guys need to talk to Mr. Rove.

It was nice to see Holmgren complain about the refs. But did he explain why he decided to ignore Cowher at midfield?

It was nice to see Holmgren complain about the refs. But did he explain why he decided to ignore Cowher at midfield?

 

My guess is he was pretty pissed off. With good reason.

My guess is he was pretty pissed off. With good reason.

 

Even so, you still have class enough to shake the opposing coaches hand. Cowher didn't do anything wrong. Cowher stood in disbelief for about 5 minutes at midfield while everyone was looking around for Holmgren. Cowher's smile went into his usual chin sticking out look, it was pretty sad for a coach that just won the super bowl.

Even so, you still have class enough to shake the opposing coaches hand. Cowher didn't do anything wrong. Cowher stood in disbelief for about 5 minutes at midfield while everyone was looking around for Holmgren. Cowher's smile went into his usual chin sticking out look, it was pretty sad for a coach that just won the super bowl.

 

I agree. I was just saying that's probably the reason why.