The Pendragon's Hall

Well, it was painful to watch. For the third straight year I cheered for the losing team, who, despite popular press, outplayed their opponents in every aspect except scoring. Unfortunately, it's scoring that determines the game and a couple of lucky, big breaks for the Steelers ensured their victory. I hope Bill Cowher wrote the officials a big check as well, because he couldn't have won without some of the worst officiating I have ever seen in a Super Bowl...and, unlike other games, where bad officiating works against both teams, it strangely enough only worked in favor of the Steelers. Roethlisberger's rushing TD, the only touchdown he was remotely involved in last night followed a call that killed Seattle's drive even though Shaun Alexander had the ball across the yellow line for a first down. Big Ben's knees were down and the ball was not even close to touching the goal line until after the play was over. Yet he sneaked the ball over after his knees went down and the officials gave him a touchdown. Earlier, the official ignored defensive pass interference by Pittsburgh and penalized the wide receiver for pushing away from it, taking away Seattle's first touchdown. If any of these plays had been corrected, the final score would have been Seattle 17, Pittsburgh 13. Let's not forget calling personal foul on Hasselbeck for tackling a man returning his only interception, a flagrant violation of NFL rules which declares the "above-the-knees" rule only applies to blocking for a run, not for tackling. This added yards to the end of the interception return which set up the Steelers' clinching touchdown. Cowher praised his QB at the end of the game but I haven't yet seen a QB who deserved it less. "Big Ben" threw two interceptions, had only one big pass (the only TD pass in the whole game was thrown by a wide receiver) and generally looked like a high school freshman for three and a half quarters. I know this sounds like the bitter rant of a fan of the losing team but the officials did a horrible job, the Steelers were well outplayed, and frankly, even if I was rooting for Pittsburgh, I don't think I could say they deserved to win. So, congrats, Pittsburgh, and Super Bowl people, start looking for professional officials.