If you’ve been watching football all year, you undoubtedly noticed the unusually high number of penalties during the game. This asshole would say that most of the decisions by the men in stripes were pretty kosher. Three holding penalties called on Mike Gandy, who had the dubious task of blocking James Harrison, sounds about right. There was that safety in the second half that, technically, was the correct call, though the hold itself seemed to have no bearing on the play.
People will bring up the Harrison moment in the fourth quarter against Whoever That Guy Was, saying that Harrison should have been ejected. Meh. No one’s ever been ejected from the championship game during the Super Bowl era, and while penalizing this play might have been a good way to get that ball rolling, there was no real effect on the game in letting it slide.
Arguably the biggest blown call of the game was Larry Fitzgerald’s touchdown catch, which was clearly bobbled and touched the ground before he seemed to establish possession. “Shades of David Tyree,” I think not, Mr. Michaels. At least Tyree caught the fucking ball. However, since the ruling was made before the two-minute warning, the Steelers had the option to challenge. They did not.
Arizona did not have that luxury after their last offensive play of the game.
It’s worth noting that Ken Whisenhunt, statistically one of the worst replay challengers in the league, won both of his challenges in this game. And it’s additionally damning of the officials that that second challenge was a play nearly identical to this one. It was a questionable turnover late in the game.
HOW DO YOU NOT REVIEW THIS PLAY?!
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brett hull is a fucking cunt. and please find a NHL blog to post your hockey shit on. Don’t get me wrong- I love hockey, but this is not the place for it.
Thank you dibbly!!
Do you people not understand the damn rule?? The ball was knocked loose before his arm was making a forward motion. He was able to push the ball forward with the throwing motion obviously, but he didn’t have anywhere near total control at any part of the forward movement! Jesus.
There wasn’t a review, because the people in the booth determined there didn’t have to be a review, because it was an obvious call. The rule says, if they see something in the two minutes that leads them to believe the call merits a review, they are to alert the ref on the field, who will then review it.
“After the 2-minute warning of each half, and in overtime, reviews can only take place if the replay assistant, who sits in the press box and monitors the network broadcast of the game, determines that a play needs review; coaches may not challenge during these times. In those cases, the replay assistant will contact the referee by a specialized electronic pager with a vibrating alert.”
So they checked it in the press box, and told Michaels they checked it, and he said they checked it, and there didn’t have to be review. Its fucking simple.
“We confirmed it was a fumble,” said Pereira. “The replay assistant in the replay booth saw it was clearly a fumble. The ball got knocked loose and was rolling in his hand before it started forward. He has to have total control.”
Total Control! Can you say, with certainty that he did have total control? No, so even if it did merit a review (which it didn’t) it wouldn’t have been overturned anyway. Read the rules and open your fucking eyes.
@Grimey, I clicked on your link and both feet are clearly touching the ground. Are you blind?
The ball was falling out of his hands before his arm was moving forward. On the one earlier in the game, his arm was not moving forward. So you are right both plays should have been called the same.
The team I was rooting against won! This is all rigged, sheeple.
You know the NFL is fake, right? You take this stuff seriously, like it’s real? You’re like an inbred West Virginian if you think the NFL puts on a real show…the NFL ‘Super Bowl’ is as real as
Pamela Anderson’s breasts
or
your IQ
If you think this fake shit is real. Please.
First of all, Brett Hull, don’t give up blogging. Maybe you could start one with Rob, the crying Giants fan who takes shit way too seriously.
Half of us see a fumble, half of us see an incomplete pass. Obviously it’s not CLEARLY either, so the call on the field wouldn’t have been overturned even if it had been reviewed for a damn hour. Maybe one day the NFL will leave the play calls open to the public, like American Idol. “If you think this was a fumble, call 888-NFL-1000. If you think this was an incomplete pass call 888-NFL-2000. We’ll return to the game in a half hour, after everyone has finished voting.” Won’t that be fun!
Brett Hull… that is some pretty gay shit right there!
@ PaulyOH
No.. not a Cardinals fan, but your name certainly gives you away, fuckmook.
Which one? Cleveland or Cincinnati?
You eat a bag of dicks. Kurt Warner is a saint.
goodbye cruel world! what will the nfl do without you?!?
They reviewed the play, what don’t you get about it? Just because they didn’t send it downstairs for McAulley to screw up doesn’t mean it is the incorrect call. Watch the replay, watch it from any angle. There is no way that his arm is going forward with the ball in his hands.
Would people be moaning and crying like this if it was Ben hit before the TD pass to Holmes, and was ruled a fumble? I doubt it.
There is no visual evidence to suggest it was anything but a fumble. The ball was out of his hand and was actually sideways before his arm went forward.
I spend a ton of my time on NFL-related things yearly, and have been a football fan for just over 20 years. I have a blog about the NFL and I participate in a few leagues and pools. With the time spent actually watching games all day Sundays and every Monday night, plus the extra days thrown in throughout the season, I spend a disproportionate amount of time not paying enough attention to my spouse during the NFL season.
But she puts up with it. She knows how much I enjoy the preciseness of football compared to the seemingly random plays in other contact sports like hockey, basketball, soccer and rugby and the thrills it gives me to watch each team play and player as they play hard in just about every game and in more plays than other sports.
I have to say that the past two Steelers Super Bowl wins (and I like the Steelers more than either the Cardinots or the Sh*&#thawks) have made me question my loyalty to this sport.
While I don’t know or care whether the last play of the game was actually reviewed or not, or whether it would have changed the outcome had it been reversed, I do know this:
The very fact that the officials would not take the time to review it has caused me to vow to my spouse that my blog is over, I’ll do only one fantasy league and one pool next season and Sundays are our day of the week now. No more all day watching games.
This is worse than a blown call. Blown calls I can deal with, obviously, or I would have lost my passion long ago. A similar event occurred in the NHL in the deciding game of the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999 when Brett Hull’s winning goal in the 3rd OT was not reviewed when it was painfully obvious that it should have been and when hundreds of alike goals had been reversed throughout that regular season and the playoffs. I have watched no more than 15-20 NHL games in the decade since, and no longer care who wins in that sport.
I feel the same disinterest growing now for the last sport I can say I loved.
Goodbye NFL.
It should have been buzzed down and replayed under the hood. You can defend it being a fumble, but it’s hardly fair to call it clear. Just looking at the responses here, there’s a pretty equal division of opinion, both of which can be supported by an explanation and visual evidence. That’s the very definition of something that should be looked at again. With all of the obviously correct calls that go through 5 minute replays throughout the season, to not send that one down is simply wrong.
Didn’t the Niners win two in the ’80s on similar last-minute drives?
No.
Were those more convincing?
I’ll be the first to admit that their last-minute win over the Bengals wasn’t exactly a blowout. But please, we’re talking about Joe Montana here. Chris Collinsworth has said that the moment Montana got the ball with 3 minutes left on his own 11 yard line, he knew the fucking game was over.
By the way, where was the 15 yard penalty for Kurt Warner taking off his helmet to cry to the refs after the 1st fumble that was eventually overturned? Kurt Warner is above the rules, right?
‘Blame the Officials’ is the battle cry of losers. The ball was clearly out before his arm was going forward. It was easy for the booth upstairs to see it one the first replay. Why waste time on a call that was clearly correct?
Oh, and if you don’t want to get called for 4 holding penalties, don’t try to put a headlock on James Harrison every times he rushes off the edge. They could have called 4 more and it still wouldn’t have been enough.
Add on the Penalty yardage? For what, celebrating the fact you just won the Super Bowl? One play does not make a game — especially not one play that you 1) would like to see reviewed, 2) hope is overturned, even though evidence wouldn’t be conclusive, 3) want a penalty to be called for celebrating, 4) hope the Cardinals will have the chance to heave a ball into the end zone and miracle their asses to victory
Perhaps you’d like a “happy ending” with your massage, sir?
[overheard in huddle on last TD drive...]
Big Ben: “HEY LOOK IT’S JOHN CANDY.”
Holmes: “What are you talking about? John Candy’s dead.”
Big Ben: “OH DARN IT WORKED FOR JOE MONTANA. OK, JUST CATCH MY PASSES, THEN.”
Congrats to the Steelers. Speaking as an Eagles fan, it’s nice to know there’s one fucking team in Pennsylvania that knows how to win a Super Bowl.
“Me”- they played the toughest schedule in the league. They controlled most of the game. Arizona played undisciplined. The better team proved itself last night. You can be as unimpressed as you want, but this game was far more legit than XL.
Legitimate football question:
If that was an incomplete pass … isn’t that intentional grounding? There wasn’t a receiver nearby. He wasn’t out of the box. And following that, isn’t there some weird 10 second runoff rule about trying to stop the clock.
Didn’t the Niners win two in the ’80s on similar last-minute drives? Were those more convincing?
On the one hand, as a Niners fan, I can sympathize with Steelers fans on all this whining about the officiating. When the 49ers were actually good, and you know, winning Super Bowls, the only fucking thing I ever heard was sniveling about the refs. This is a natural reaction from people who hate you, but it’s no less tiresome for that fact.
But (and you knew there was another hand coming), color me unimpressed with Pittsburgh’s last two titles. I know a ring is a ring, but damn, would it fucking kill you to just win one convincingly, with no doubts and no ambiguity about anything? And the best defense in the league does not give up a two-touchdown lead in the 4th quarter.
1. That final play needed full review, regardless of how whether it was fumble or not. At the very least, it silences the critics.
2. Santonio clearly should have been tagged with a 15-yard celebration penalty for doing his Lebron imitation with the ball. That definitely could have changed things late.
3. Right before Cards scored their first TD in fourth, Warner got hit semi-late. But even if it wasn’t a late hit, it was a freakin blow to the head, and should have been called. Meanwhile, that roughing penalty against Dockett on Big Ben was horseshit.
4. Why the fuck was Harrison not kicked out of the game for throwing the punch at the guy during the play? Even Madden suggested he be ejected.
5. And speaking of Harrison, that 100-yard INT return should NOT have stood up. Look at the replay. When he gets around the 20 or so, Woodley gets away with an obvious block in the back. THe defender was ahead and slowing down getting ready to hit Harrison, then Woodley gets one hand on the side of shoulder, and the other hand right in the middle of the back, and shoves him out of bounds. It was clear and right in front of the runner. How this was not called is beyond me.
6. Oh, and I’m not a Cardinal fan. Kurt Warner can eat a bag of dicks. I just wanted to see a game fairly decided. It was not. I was chatting in a forum of basically neutral fans, and the running joke by the third quarter was how the refs were consistenly ass-fucking the Cards.
Yes, good. Let the hate flow through you.
God, you guys are a bunch of hating babies. It was a fumble. The ball doesn’t move with Kurt’s harm is moving. His hand catches the ball on the follow through and pushes it forward. He’d lost possession of the ball. It was a fumble.
Go Steelers. Stop being bitter because you don’t like the team.
Warners QB instinct is to keep his arm moving forward. They all do it. The haters all act like his arm was halfway through the throw. It wasn’t.
Last time I checked when the possession of the ball changes the teams switch from offense to defense and vice versa. Play clock runs and the steelers don’t have to stand around and wait for a review to be called down. snapping the ball before that happens = that play is officially done.
You all (haters) seem like you watch the game but don’t know dick about.
It’s a fumble. Let’s move on with our lives.
“Our lives”?
Objection, your honor. Presumes facts not in evidence.
Are we looking at the same video? Here’s what I see:
Warner pulls arm back.
Woodley places arm on the ball, at which point Warner loses control of the ball.
Warner’s arm comes forward, without maintaining clear possession of the football, and shot puts the ball. Steelers recover. Haters cry. Boo hoo.
OK, the booth can’t “review”. But they have to review in order to decide whether or not to send the play down to the on-field refs. As the linked article indicated, the review booth was so confident that the play was a fumble that they saw no need to send it down to the field. So they reviewed, but did not review.
Peezy say fix yo replay.
/Sorry to bring up hockey, but that’s all we have left through May.
//Unless you count baseball in the snow.
no, we’ll always have mocking you for marrying such an ugly whore. fuckwit.
http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80e84f48&filter=cant-miss-plays&categoryId=featured
if you look at it from the reverse angle, it’s clearly a fumble. in fact, it might’ve even been a fumble if woodley didn’t hit him, because it appears he was about to pull a tommy maddox and throw his arm forward awkwardly without the ball.
Would any of the haters be bleating for Harrison’s ejection if Madden and Michaels (idiots, remember) hadn’t said anything? Also, he didn’t do anything important after that play, so who gives a fuck? Enjoy the reading mock drafts until April!
It was a fumble, but having it “reviewed in the booth and confirmed as a fumble,” is kind of against the rules. If there was any question about the call, it should have been sent back down to the on-field ref, who is the only one with the authority to confirm a replay. I wouldn’t be upset if they changed that rule, but that’s how it’s supposed to happen.
“Al Michaels said they reviewed it”
Who the fuck is Al Michaels? Does Al have an earpiece in that intercepts transmissions from the Review booth down to the officials? Is God telling him what’s happening in that earpiece? Is Al telepathic? NO. He’s just a guy who tells you what the fuck is going on in a game. How many times do announcers botch shit during the game? Is that because they had bad information from their all knowing earpiece? NO. It’s because they have the exact same vantage point as anyone in the stands, save for a few monitors, and a sideline reporter to tell them that the coach told their team to “keep fighting and win this game.”
This is all ignoring the fact that plays can’t even be reviewed in the booth. The replay assistant can signal reviews on behalf of coaches.
“After the 2-minute warning of each half, and in overtime, reviews can only take place if the replay assistant, who sits in the press box and monitors the network broadcast of the game, determines that a play needs review; coaches may not challenge during these times. In those cases, the replay assistant will contact the referee by a specialized electronic pager with a vibrating alert.”
This reminds me of the “review” of Brett Hull’s No Goal in the ’99 Stanley Cup Finals. THERE WASN’T ONE! Though I doubt the NFL will admit they were wrong on this one, like the NHL did.
/Sorry to bring up hockey, but that’s all we have left through May.
//Unless you count baseball in the snow.
They showed like five replays before the Steelers ran a play. Don’t you think, just maybe, the refs upstairs checked them out too?
It’s a fumble. Let’s move on with our lives.
So, when Michaels says on air that the booth reviewed the play and confirmed the call, that’s revisionist history how?
I’m glad the booth was able to review this crucial play so quickly and efficiently without having to subject the tired viewers to two or three minutes of actual review for confirmation.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/28971640/
It was reviewed by the replay booth and confirmed to be a fumble. You may not agree, but the whine about it not being reviewed is just plain false.
The ball does not move. The shoulder does. the ELBOW does. The ball does not.
STOP BEING A FUCKING HOMO.
@ grimey
it depends on how you view possession, but once holmes brings the ball to his chest, his right foot did not make contact with the turf, the back angle replay confirms that…
i guess it’s all a matter of how you view it, and what color glasses you have on…
/cards choked it away, but it wasn’t like the referees didn’t help…
//not looking forward to the bandwagon stillers fans on JMU’s campus today…
///begrudingly congratulating the fucking stillers…
It sure as hell does look like an incomplete pass. That game had some of the weirdest god damn officiating you’ll ever see. Pretty weird that the teams took turns getting flagged about 6 times in a row, including 3 massive calls against Arizona on the one field goal drive. I don’t think there were any calls as egregious as in SB XL, but some weird ones nevertheless.
It probably bears mentioning that Whisenhunt was 2 for 2 on challenges, including, like Punter said, a play almost identical to the one in the video. Proof that they were flat out botching some calls.
I love this post season hate fest – it’s so damn refreshing. Waaaaay better than the “We’ll be back” or “Wait till next year” crap you always hear..
H8 H8 H8 H8 H8!
Lots of bad calls in that game. Sure they got some right, and some hard ones, but that’s their fucking job. And some bad rules too. You can’t run into the holder? The fuck is that?
Well, I’m pretty sure this isn’t a new generation of Seahawks fans, but just the ones who migrated from that bandwagon over to the Buzzsaw bandwagon this year. Next year they’ll complain about something else.
ALSO… I don’t think it’s wise for Cards fans to bitch about bad officiating when it’s arguable that the only reason they were in the Super Bowl was because of a blatant PI non-call.
Again, not saying that the Eagles were jobbed by officiating (maybe we shouldn’t have let Fitty go BEEF MOE on us, or scored more than a field goal in the first half), but it illustrates how bad the officiating is in the league on the whole and that, yeah, what goes around comes the fuck around.
I’m just glad to know we’ve spawned a new generation of Seahawks fans circa 2006
Pretty par for the course in terms of hater tactics.
Straight from the Christmas Ape playbook, I might add.
In any event, who cares? It is not like the play took place on the ten yard line. If they get the teams together today and have them run a Hail Mary that does not work, would that get everyone to stop talking about this?
@Rob–No, it means one of two things happened in the booth–the official got caught up in the moment and did a shitty job or didn’t know the rules because by any definition of a forward pass that was one. Both choices suck. just sayin’
So, when Michaels says on air that the booth reviewed the play and confirmed the call, that’s revisionist history how?
Because it’s the Internet. And something is automatically true, regardless how crazy or bogus, if some anonymous douche says it confidently and often, factual evidence to the contrary be damned.
/The sky is green. It is, and if you can’t see that you are sheeple who believe what the government tells you.
@Ape and Steelers fans: arguing that it was an incomplete pass does not come from any anti-Steeler bias. If Roethlisberger had made that pass and the Cards won I’d say it was bullshit too. If we have learned anything about the Tuck rule, it’s that if Brady’s fucking arm was moving forward, then Warner’s damn sure was too. He was undoubtedly in the process of throwing the ball when it came out. If it’s ruled incomplete, as it should have, and you tack on the 15 yard penalty, they have 1st and 10 at the 30 with 7 seconds, which is time enough for a shot downfield, or even a quick out to the 20 and another shot at the end zone. There’s no problem with enjoying a satisfying win as a Steelers fan but it’s clear that the pass, which is what it was, should have been reviewed.
Biggest blown call was Fitzy’s TD catch/no-catch?
I’d argue it was not giving San Antonio a 15-yard penalty for using the ball as a prop in his celebration. That gives the Cards a better chance at not sucking ass on their last drive…maybe changes the game.
still not convinced Santonio Holmes had that right foot inbounds
Here you go, Punter
So, when Michaels says on air that the booth reviewed the play and confirmed the call, that’s revisionist history how?
Good God Ape, I don’t know how you put up with this nonsense.
That game was the most obvoiusly rigged “sporting event” since Wrestlemania. Maybe next year the NFL can send out a memo prior to the game & ask the participants to at least try to make it somewhat believable. The fakery was blatantly obvious, blatantly. The NFL has become a complete joke with zero credibility.
Yeah, I pretty much agree with everything Punter says. Fitz’s “TD” definitely hit the ground and that was definitely as forward pass. Hand going forward, ball in hand, ball leaves hand as arm snaps forward, ball spins slightly as it travels five yards forward before some dude falls on it – that’s a pass.
Not that it would’ve changed anything. There was like what, five seconds left?
@Ape: this isn’t about hating on any team. The douchebaggery of the Steeler song parodies and asshats like Sancho aside (hey asshole – how much did they give you for your Pats hat when you traded it in for a Steelers one?), I actually respect the Steelers. I’d much rather they have the most Super Bowl championships in the league than, say, New England or Washington. This Super Bowl wasn’t like last year’s game, when everyone with a soul was hoping against hope that we wouldn’t wake up on the morning of February 4th in a world where the Pats had gone 19-0 and the dipshit “Boston faithful” were taking credit for it (and thank whatever Gods there may be that the Giants delivered). For those of us whose team wasn’t playing in the Super Bowl last night, this was about seeing the best game possible, and I think that the way the game ended – with a questionable call and hasty Steelers snap before a much-needed review – sort of ruined that. The ending was awkward and anti-climactic. But all in all, a great game to watch, one of the best (but not THE best) Super Bowl games ever, and congrats to the Steeler fans out there.
/sad Giants reign as champions is over
//remembers Giants are responsible for 18*-1
///realizes that will haunt Rodney Harrison for the rest of his life
////breaks out DVD and watches Super Bowl XLII again
/////masturbates with even more pleasure than usual
The NFL does have an officiating epidemic. All their officials are stupid and incompetant. This is the same across the board, no biases.
That being said, the Cards lost that game when no one decided they wanted to shove Lunchbox Harrison out of bounds and further when they decided they weren’t going to cover Santonio Holmes. Not because of officiating.
THAT WAS AN INCOMPLETE PASS! NO ONE DENIES THIS!
No doubt AZ had a lot of chances to win, like not getting Harrison on the ground with 100 yards to do so [BTW, he should have been MVP, as much for the holding calls he induced, which killed AZ drives, as the pick]. A game like this should have ended better…first an ten from the Steelers 30, maybe eight seconds left? Who knows
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afcnorth/0-2-38/Inside-the-final-drive.html
Also, according to this article, the winning play was “62 scat flasher”. Does that mean it was originally drawn up for Najeh Davenport? Or is it some special insight into Justin Hartwig’s fetishes?
Food for thought…
Subtly hilarious part about the victory: All of the Super Bowl XLIII paraphernalia is bedecked with the Seahawks colors. That should help Seattle fans forget about Super Bowl XL.
Strip sacked on a THREE MAN RUSH. Footsteps Warner gets the ball out of the shotgun and starts running after only 2 seconds. He completely lost his composure – never had a chance. I can’t belive he still has his arm!
@RM Nixon
Believe me… I’m amazed at what passes for conclusive evidence these days. And the whole booth review thing is bogus… coaches should just save their damn challenges for the end if they’re worried. I mean if the timeout is a strategy call, shouldn’t challenges be, too?
But anyone denies that the NFL has an officiating crisis is also an idiot
There’s no crisis. It’s selection bias–people notice the mistakes and ignore the massive amount of calls that are right that they make ever game.
The game is so fast now I’m shocked the refs can do as well as they do. You see how incredibly fast that Holmes catch was? And that the ref immediately signaled TD and was right?
That pass was incomplete and they didn’t review it. If they did, the Steelers wouldn’t have been able to snap the ball so quickly. That revisionist bullshit about them reviewing the call is so people won’t cry that the game was fixed. It wasn’t fixed, but the Cards got jobbed out of one last chance that they deserved. Whether or not they would have scored is irrelevant. Make the right fucking call for fucks sake you shithead refs.
/fuck all steeler fans
//hope you got to spray champagne on yourselves
///how was the gatorade bath this morning?
////don’t spend that game check all in one place yinzers
@Lowerlatitude:
The Steelers won, fair and square–like you said, the Cards had their shot and they blew it. Anyone who blames the officials for the result of the game is an idiot.
But anyone denies that the NFL has an officiating crisis is also an idiot.
I’m just waiting for the videos of Steeler fans burning couches and flipping cars over. good times.
And yes, most awkward ending ever to a SB
Had the Cardinals won, no matter how it happened, all you’d hear is the collective guffawing of the football world for a Steelers loss. But Pittsburgh won, so we’re nitpicking every minor call and pronouncing it a referee screwjob. Pretty par for the course in terms of hater tactics.
It’s so silly how there is virtually no more QB fumbles in the league. Thanks Pats! (I thought the tuck rule only has to do with manginas, but I guess not) If a qb has the ball in his hands, he is hit in the back and as a knee jerk reaction he “ejaculates the ball down the feel”, how is that an incomplete pass? I realize that this is the rule, but seriously c’mon now. And the one caused by Woodley late in the game, Warner chucked the ball into the backs of his interior linemen. That shit is weak. Weak, weak, weak. It’ such a bitch move to chuck the ball as you are hit, just hold on to it and absorb the hit. So weak.
Now THIS is the kind of hate I was hoping for!!!! MORE MORE MORE!!! It feels so good to hear the seething FUCK FUCKING FUCK FUCK of all the Punters of the world. Ahhh to be a fan of the greatest franchise winning the greatest game. I have to admit – SB XL was not satisfying. All the controversey (legitimate) really detracted from the win. This one however – SOOOOOOOOO SWEEEET. Enjoy waiting for the draft fellas – that’s all you got going for ya this offseason.