Super Bowl XL

[The Czech Republic 0]

With regard to the "how could the refs be biased against the Steelers three weeks ago and then for them last night", were I a conspiracy theorist, I would argue that three weeks ago the Colts were the story of the year for the NFL (big regular season, Dungy death) and so the NFL did want to see them go to the SB. Unfortunately not even the refs could overcome the vortex of choke emitted by Peyton and Dungy, so the Steelers moved on. When we wound up with a Steelers vs. Seawho? SuperBowl, the STOY shifted to Pittsburgh since the Seawhats? had nothing going for them from a hype standpoint. That's why there was a shift in bias, if you believe that. I don't, particularly, but that's how I'd argue it.

And my rebuttal would be that there have been many times in which the table has been set for an all-time classic, only to draw the Worst Case Scenario, like the 2003 LCSs. We always talk about the series that the league wants; I can't think of a more desired outcome than Cubs-Red Sox. If Selig wanted it, he'd make it happen. The Calgary Flames bringing the Stanley Cup back to Canada before the NHL would surely go dark would've been huge. Could've happened, it didn't. People really pick and choose where the officiating biases are depending on when it's trendy to do so, and here at the home of "ORTON IS SUCKBAG...I mean GOD RANDY ORTON LOOKS SO GOOD IN A SUIT," you can't rule out the drone tendencies of this community.

[Slayer 0]

I'd still like to know, too, why Montana and Bradshaw were absent from the Super Bowl MVPs ceremony

[Guest Princess Leena]

Randy looks better in a fanny pack.

[The Czech Republic 0]

It's curious how the board went from either tepidly supporting one team or the other since the Board Darling Patriots were absent, to the Martyr Hasselbeck bullshit from last night's thread, where each and every play was a shining example of how the game was fixed for those Awful Awful Steelers to win.

[Guest Princess Leena]

I'd still like to know, too, why Montana and Bradshaw were absent from the Super Bowl MVPs ceremony

 

Rumor is that Montana wanted a $100k appearance fee... if true, then he is quite the fucking asshole.

 

Bradshaw used the family excuse.

[Special K 0]

Because bad calls are bad calls. Call against a team consistently, and people are going to notice. The block below the waist? I'm pretty sure that's the worst call I've ever seen in my entire fucking life.

[Special K 0]

Bradshaw used the family excuse.

 

Bradshaw was probably still hungover from two weeks ago.

[Slayer 0]

I'd still like to know, too, why Montana and Bradshaw were absent from the Super Bowl MVPs ceremony

Rumor is that Montana wanted a $100k appearance fee... if true, then he is quite the fucking asshole.

In that case, they should have brought in a cardboard cutout

[The Czech Republic 0]

Because bad calls are bad calls. Call against a team consistently, and people are going to notice. The block below the waist? I'm pretty sure that's the worst call I've ever seen in my entire fucking life.

Didn't people notice like every single terrible call in the playoffs? Nobody was as up in arms about those. You'd think we never saw it coming.

[Special K 0]

During the playoffs, the refs just seemed incompetent. During SBXL, they appeared biased. I'm not saying they were.

[The Czech Republic 0]

What do they care if the Steelers win or lose? The season is over, the nation is watching as it always does, the network and league get their shares of the ad revenue. They don't care. If they did, they would've handed XVII to those major-fanbase Raiders and not the Buccaneers. It doesn't reflect poorly on the league to have Seattle win. It just means nobody will be that jazzed about it, but next season will start, and there's a clean slate

[naiwf 0]

The Super Bowl is SUPPOSED to have the best officials the league has to offer, an all star crew if you will. If those boobs were the best the league's got, well then they need a whole new set of officials next year because the "best" were downright awful.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Or maybe they should just use one squad that has worked together, instead of the all-star format. I'm surprised refs haven't made a stink about that, because that rightly or wrongly implies that some officials are more qualified than others.

[jimmy no nose 0]

I think if you look at the rule the Hasselbeck block below the waist call is correct. Hasselbeck went low for the tackle which is fine, but he made contact with Deshea Townsend (a potential blocker) below the waist before making contact with Ike Taylor. The penalty is designed to make it so a player on the team that threw an interception can't take blockers out of the play, which Hasselbeck didn't really do, but based on the actual rule I believe the call is correct. I didn't even know the rule existed until I saw it called a few times in the past several weeks of the season.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I really didn't think the officiating was that bad. It seems like every major game in the NFL, you always hear "the refs sucked", each and every time. I think you could have super AI robotic refs, equipped with special laser sensors, and people would complain that they weren't fair enough.

 

As far as the conspiracies go...it would make for a good movie script, but there's no reason for the NFL to fix any games. The NFL is unique right now in that there aren't any Yankee-like teams dominating the sport year after year. Almost every team draws well at home, and most teams get covered pretty equally. There isn't any "league favortism" or such BS.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

THIS IS THE GREATEST NIGHT IN THE HISTORY OF OUR SPORT!

[Special K 0]

I don't think the NFL really employed any favoratism, but ABC sure fucking did.

[Slayer 0]

Jim Rome said the comp for the MVPs appearing was $1000 plus covered 1st class air, board, game ticket and car rental

[Red Baron 0]

To make the NFL make the correct calls the super bowl should be played over a game of NFL 2007.

[The Man in Blak 0]

I don't think the NFL really employed any favoratism, but ABC sure fucking did.

 

Part of that, I think, had to do with the Steelers being in the lead for most of the game. They recorded segments with the Lombardi trophy for both team (and I think they even played Hasselbeck's at one point), but they ended up playing the segments with the Steelers to kind of build the plotline that was going on within the game (Steelers being ahead). I'm just speculating, of course, but it may have been a case where the game dictated the coverage.

[Slayer 0]

I'm wondering why players would film vignettes with the Lombardi trophy... I'd figure that the superstition of the Stanley Cup (don't touch it before you win it) would apply to the other big sports as well.

 

I know I wouldn't

[Special K 0]

It was all Steelers, all the time even when Seattle was ahead.

[snuffbox 0]

When did Czech become Chicagoland's biggest Steelers fan? And the NFL's personal boytrick?

[jwpeer 0]

It was all Steelers, all the time even when Seattle was ahead.

 

 

that's not true.

 

The first two segments were Ben Roethlisberger and then the Bettis one, then a dual segment with Ben and Hasselbeck, then one with A bunbch of players including the two coaches with big parts (which had a pretty big focus on Holmgren as I recall)

 

Then we got the solo shot of Hasselbeck, then the ben/hasselbeck one again.

 

I'm surprised they didn't play the jerome one constantly.

 

It was slightly steeler biased with the opening spots, but in the end it was pretty balanced. I was paying attention to those commercials, as I kinda liked them

[The Man in Blak 0]

When did Czech become Chicagoland's biggest Steelers fan? And the NFL's personal boytrick?

 

Probably around the time that a half-dozen or more people became NFL conspiracy theorists in this thread.

[bob_barron 0]

When did Czech become Chicagoland's biggest Steelers fan? And the NFL's personal boytrick?

 

Because he's pointing out that everyone's being an idiot with the OMG NFL CONSPIRACY!~

[snuffbox 0]

Ive only read of one person having the opinion that the referees were absolutely perfect. Even the televised talking heads mentioned the bad calls quite often.

 

The only thing as sad as the conspiracy theories is acting like there were zero mistakes by the officials.

[The Czech Republic 0]

I don't give a shit one way or the other about the Steelers. I could ask many of you about this "Hasselbeck lost for our sins" nonsense.

[snuffbox 0]

Guess I missed the part where Hasselback became Christ...

[The Czech Republic 0]

I don't think the game was perfectly called; no game is. I'm just saying that the game was not stolen from Seattle as many of you think, and that you guys really choose your battles when it comes to which games are terribly called and which aren't. Bears-Panthers, obvious delay of game penalty didn't get called that could've saved Chicago from an interception. The board wasn't up in arms! This was the STEVE SMITH STEVE SMITH STEVE SMITH board that night. Nobody cared about the Seahawks until last night when the calls went Pittsburgh's way, and it suddenly became the obligation of everyone here to declare that this was an obvious conspiracy.