BREAKING NEWS: Jerome Bettis is adopted, actually born in Miami; will play one more year and hopes to plague us all with another week of hype...
Congratulations to Pittsburg and all the Steeler fans. A few quick notes about the game:
There's been a lot of talk in the sports media about the ref-ing in this game, so I thought I'd throw my two cents in. As far as the calls in question: Darrell Jackson did push off, albeit a very little bit, but it was approximately 3 centimeters from the referee and the right call was made; on Jeremy Stevens catch to the 1 called back for holding, the Seahawks linemans arm was hooked on the defender, even only for a second, but again good close call; I don't think Rothlesberger got the ball into the end zone on his run, but it really was to close to call someone right or wrong, so I'm leaving that one alone. Finally, Hasslebeck made a decent tackle for a QB who just threw an INT, and that was a bad call of an illegal block. But honestly, if that were the only thing people thought was a bad call, no one would be complaining about the refs.
My point is, I don't think the refs did a bad job with the officiating, but I think the Steelers benefitted from a lot of close calls. Considering the number of mistakes that BOTH teams made, I think the Steelers need to be pretty thankful that these calls kept coming their way, especially after the Bettis fumble/Rothlesberger tackle against Indy and the Carson Palmer injury.
(One more point on the officiating before I move on that the media I thought has been overlooking: towards the end of the first half, while Seattle was running their first of two AWFUL 2 minute drills, Darrell Jackson caught a ball near the front corner of the endzone and ruled out of bounds. The replay showed that he had one foot down and the second one landed out of bounds. But if you look closely, you will see the second foot go past the pilon which most definately moves. Since the pilon is inbounds, the second foot touched something inbounds, and it should have been ruled a completion. This play was after the two minute warning and Pittsburg called a timeout directly after the play, giving the replay officials ample time to ask for a review, but none came. On this, I say the refs dropped the ball.)
But what's done is done. Whether or not you liked the game (or the commercials) the undenialable fact has undoubtedly hit you: football is over again until September. For football fans around the country, OSAD (Off-Seasonal Affective Disorder) is setting in. Some doctors are now recommending light therapy and prescribing heavy doses of Madden NFL video games until the glow of plasma screen football fills our living rooms again. But there is still a huge void to be filled on Sundays, and we will examine a few of the options for football fans below:
There's been a lot of talk in the sports media about the ref-ing in this game, so I thought I'd throw my two cents in. As far as the calls in question: Darrell Jackson did push off, albeit a very little bit, but it was approximately 3 centimeters from the referee and the right call was made; on Jeremy Stevens catch to the 1 called back for holding, the Seahawks linemans arm was hooked on the defender, even only for a second, but again good close call; I don't think Rothlesberger got the ball into the end zone on his run, but it really was to close to call someone right or wrong, so I'm leaving that one alone. Finally, Hasslebeck made a decent tackle for a QB who just threw an INT, and that was a bad call of an illegal block. But honestly, if that were the only thing people thought was a bad call, no one would be complaining about the refs.
My point is, I don't think the refs did a bad job with the officiating, but I think the Steelers benefitted from a lot of close calls. Considering the number of mistakes that BOTH teams made, I think the Steelers need to be pretty thankful that these calls kept coming their way, especially after the Bettis fumble/Rothlesberger tackle against Indy and the Carson Palmer injury.
(One more point on the officiating before I move on that the media I thought has been overlooking: towards the end of the first half, while Seattle was running their first of two AWFUL 2 minute drills, Darrell Jackson caught a ball near the front corner of the endzone and ruled out of bounds. The replay showed that he had one foot down and the second one landed out of bounds. But if you look closely, you will see the second foot go past the pilon which most definately moves. Since the pilon is inbounds, the second foot touched something inbounds, and it should have been ruled a completion. This play was after the two minute warning and Pittsburg called a timeout directly after the play, giving the replay officials ample time to ask for a review, but none came. On this, I say the refs dropped the ball.)
But what's done is done. Whether or not you liked the game (or the commercials) the undenialable fact has undoubtedly hit you: football is over again until September. For football fans around the country, OSAD (Off-Seasonal Affective Disorder) is setting in. Some doctors are now recommending light therapy and prescribing heavy doses of Madden NFL video games until the glow of plasma screen football fills our living rooms again. But there is still a huge void to be filled on Sundays, and we will examine a few of the options for football fans below:
- The Pro-Bowl This is only one Sunday in the many weekends of offseason but it warrants mention because so many fans make the same mistake every year. "I miss football...Hey! The best players in the league are all playing each other this weekend! This has got be a great game! One more week of football!" If only the knew how wrong they were. Most of the best players elected to the Pro-Bowl drop out because of "injury" (last year, someone actually dropped out because he scheduled his wedding for that weekend). The players haven't seen much time together, because they are lounging around Hawaii rather than practicing. The coaches don't exactly have their hearts in it: they are the losing coaches of the NFC and AFC championship games; one game away from the Super Bowl. Do not get sucked in to this trap, I cannot say it any plainer than that.
- Skills Competitions, "NFL Players Challenge", or anything else where football players aren't actually playing football A lot of people are trying to cash in on the NFL these days. There are not only QB challenges but running back challenges, wide reciever challenges, I even saw an offensive line challenge once. They are boring, they are not taken seriously by the players, therefore should not be taken seriously by you. Now they have that weird ESPN show where they have NFL players do everything except for play football (bowling, canoeing, carrying water. That's right, YOU ARE WATCHING SOME GUYS CARRY WATER). Best case scenario in all of this is that you get to see Takeo Spikes fall off his Jet Ski. Worst case scenario is you get to see Robert Edwards almost need his leg amputated. Either way, is this really worth watching?
- Arena Football, Canadian Football, European Football This stuff is advertised as "the place for extreme fans to see Kurt Warner before he hits the pros." Remember what happened to Kurt Warner? 'Nuff said.
- Basketball and Hockey Hey! Hockey's back! Maybe with all the changes it will be better this year! Not likely, half the teams in the league still get to the playoffs, which aren't until July or something anyway, at which point there is baseball and training camp, which is WAY more entertaining. As for basketball, I'm all about March Maddness, it is basically my return to sports after the SuperBowl, but pro ball just isn't exciting.
- Guy movies including The Seige, Rounders, The Matrix, any of the Die Hards or Lethal Weapons, and anything starring Nicholas Cage or Jean Claude Van Damm This happens every year. USA, TNT, FX, even TBS try to get back as many guys as possible on Sundays by showing the same guy movies over and over and over again. This can be hit or miss. I'm all for watching any Die Hard on any given sunday, but if I see Con-Air one more time, I may never be able to stop saying "She is my butterfly." (By the way, that may be the single WORST line in movie history, yet it is said in the movie like 20 times).
- Sundays are for bowling Espn has these great new commercials out where bowling balls are blamed for destroying lawnmowers and washing machines and such because Sundays are meant for bowling. Great commercials, high comedy, but I'm not spending my Sundays rooting for Jimbo to throw a turkey so he can face Billy Joe in the final round. And those creepy mustaches will bring back to many painful memories of Jake Plummer.
posted by Mike Oliver at 7:59 PM
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