The Sour Grapes of Sports...It's part of the game.

[trumad]

I do it...you do it... It's the way it is. You see it every single time there's a game of this magnitude. Bottom line--- Scoreboard. Period!

[WildEyedLiberal]

1. Meh

I'm not a Seahawks fan or a Steeler hater - I'm absolutely neutral on both counts. But the reffing blew big time.

[trumad]

2. And so did Seattles decision making.

[WildEyedLiberal]

5. Not saying Seattle deserved to have won

They could have overcome the bad officiating - their offense and defense failed, and they made more costly mistakes than did Pittsburgh. That is all true. Completely fair reffing may not have changed the end result of the game. But watching the refs do their damndest to influence the outcome just sucks the joy out of any sporting event for me.

[fortyfeetunder]

25. I have to agree with you.

I saw fatal mistakes by the Hawks in the Redskins and Panthers games, and I was wondering could they sustain them in a Super Bowl game.

Like Special teams (actually they did OK today) and failure to consistently the "Seal the deal" after an interception....which they failed to score .

Yes the reffing sucked, the Seahawks lost. I am over the whole danged thing. Back to bizness as usual....

[Renew Deal]

6. That's BS.

Seattle did far more to "blow it" than the refs.

[WildEyedLiberal]

8. I didn't say the refs "blew it"

I said they "blew."

Big diff. :P

[Broken_Hero]

3. Yep, part of the game unfortunately...:)

But we all do our best to deal with it...:) Kudo's to the Steelers, and Cowher and the whole city of Pitt...enjoy it...:)

[zone]

4. That's what the neocons said in 2000

oh, and then there was the Supreme Court to back them up. Oh wait, the scoreboard in 2000 said that Gore won. Nevermind, this is a bad analogy. Fuck football. Fuck politics.

[trumad]

7. So you're posting in a football thread

an on a political board--but you say fuck both.. go figure....

[zone]

9. What the fuck are you talking about?

I was being sarcastic.

[trumad]

10. Sorry

I should have just asked you what the fuck you were talking about.

[zone]

11. Well

I was referring to the 200,000 votes Gore won by in 2000 as an analogy to your "scoreboard."

[trumad]

12. Excuse me...Bush won that clearly...

[zone]

13. I thought so

You are high, my friend. The buck stops here.

[trumad]

14. I don't get it...

Bush won in 2000...are you trying to tell me something different?

[zone]

15. At the risk of talking "politics" on a "football" thread

I thought it was common knowledgle that Gore won the popular vote.

[trumad]

28. You know I'm only fucking with you...LOL

BTW> welcome to DU...

Peace

[zone]

30. Oh...and thanks.

Lol back. Where do all the quirky smile icons on DU come from?

[Mojambo]

17. Well, yeah. I'm telling you he shouldn't have. n/t

[zone]

18. I'm a dumb newbee

What does "n/t" mean after a post?

[Awsi Dooger]

24. Text in subject line only, nothing in message box; like this n/t

[zone]

21. Agreed. No conspiracy. Still would like to know what "n/t" means.

Thank you, and good night.

[Mojambo]

16. The sour grapes are not just coming from Seattle

The consensus in a lot of places is that Seattle was hosed pretty badly.

http://forums.espn.go.com/espn/thread?forumID=821&start=0&threadID=3134345&sortBy=null

Now they may not have won even under even officiating, but it sure would have been nice if Pittsburgh had to earn it a little more.

[Awsi Dooger]

23. Exactly; I watched it in a sportsbook and everyone was in agreement

Even Steeler fans or Steeler bettors. The officiating was horrendous. In a game like that you're supposed to avoid the iffy calls, not emphasize them. The two most ticky tack areas are pass interference and holding and these refs decided to alter the game in both regards.

I just bet the under so it was actually helping me by denying scoring opportunities for Seattle, but as a sports fan I was livid.

[regnaD kciN]

27. And not just the fans...

Columnists from parts of the country other than Seattle are calling it, too.

Looks like it wasn’t only the home crowd that was pro-Steelers at Ford Field.

Count the zebras amongst those who seemed to be among the Iron City faithful. All game long, it looked like they had an edict to “make sure Jerome Bettis goes out a winner and make sure Dan Rooney gets a Vince”. A hail of blatantly bad calls went against the Seattle Seahawks which cost them 14 precious points, and ultimately the game.

http://www.patsfans.com/bob/display_story.php?story_id=2933


This is the space where I get to say, I told ya so. But I won't. I can't.

I've never felt so empty being right. I feel dirty. I wish I'd been wrong. The Steelers did not deserve to win this game. They were not the better team. O'Connor was right. Seattle was the better team.

Like a crazed CIA analyst running through the halls of Langley screaming into open offices about some impending calamity, I've been shrieking hysterically about the terrible officiating in the NFL and warning that some day the brutal calls were going to affect the outcome of the Super Bowl.

That some day was Sunday. Every single questionable, marginal or outright bad call went against the Seahawks.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/5310192


The Seahawks justifiably can complain that Sunday's one-sided officiating disrupted their offensive rhythm and undermined their focus. The officiating had to creep inside their head.

And NFL fans need to acknowledge that there's something terribly wrong with professional football. This year's playoffs were horrible. Sunday's Super Bowl stands as an appropriate symbol of the 2006 playoffs_boring and poorly officiated.

Bill Leavy and his crew ruined Super Bowl XL. Am I the only one who would like to hear them defend their incompetence?

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/football/13801313.htm

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. The idea that the refs "wanted a team to win" is ridiculous

Worthy of a pouting nine-year old at best.

I don';t even think the refs did a bad job, really. The holding call was legit, and the offensive pass interference was so clear that only a wild-eyed partisan could pretend not to see the push off. From this dubious basis, many on these boards are claiming actual intent on the part of the officiating team. It's a joke, and damn embarrassing for those partaking in such nonsenses.

[regnaD kciN]

26. This coming from a Pennsylvania native...

What. A. Shock. :sarcasm:

[alcibiades_mystery]

29. Actually, I'm a New Yorker

Just live in PA. Don't really care a damn about the Steelers, either. I'm a Jets fan, sad to say. So, there goes that theory, but you've said a lot about howe you folks think...

[fishwax]

20. the refs sucked, the time management sucked, the game sucked

the Steelers didn't suck (well, at least not after the first quarter and a half).

oh well, they can't all be interesting ...

[DainBramaged]

22. I didn't watch it, doesn't matter to many of us. With that good night