sarea | Alas.

Boy am I glad I'm not into professional sports. I was rooting for the Seahawks because hey, at least they have some connection to me. The loss was disappointing to watch, but I'm sure for others around here, was heart wrenching. :( But like I said, I'm glad I didn't have much invested in the game, because if I'd had to watch what happened yesterday to a team I really cared about, I would have burst several blood vessels. Wow, some of those calls. Just, wow. Those refs had no business being so bloody visible in a game like that. It's times like these when you really have to wonder about shady/underhanded dealings that go on behind the scenes. O.o

Let's see what sports ~~geeks~~ experts at ESPN have to say:

This is the TOP STORY on the site currently. Quote: "Here's what referee Bill Leavy's crew did, point blank: It robbed Seattle."

This ESPN sports commentator doesn't even like the Seahawks and yet even he concludes that the officials were frauds. And goes on to say, "I'm not sure they (the Steelers) deserved to win this game."

From the peanut gallery, a poll: Were the Seahawks robbed/was the officiating bad? I was actually surprised by how many people answered YES. Either the Seahawks has more fans than I imagined, or people really are riled up by yesterday's game. Check it out, and vote yourself.

What was most enjoyable was being at

romanticalgirl's Super Bowl party, eating the cheesy thingy appetizer and later, building my own chicken fajitas. Laura made so much that following any little Seahawks moment she was like, "Celebrate with FOOD!" Haha.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I watched the game yesterday and didn't care who won -- but I don't think the officiating would've made that much of a difference, personally.

Oh sports, how debatable you are.

I guess that's the point -- we'll never know. :) I mean, certainly if the Seahawks were a 'better' team, they could/should have overcome all those things that weren't going their way, and won it anyway. But the two teams seemed equally matched -- it would have been a much better game if we could have watched the teams play, instead of the officials officiating.

Pittsburgh definitely made some key plays, so it's not as if they didn't do anything to deserve the win. But in sports one of the most important aspects is momentum, and Seattle got that taken away time and time again. There's only so many times you can beat a guy into the ground before he won't bother to get back up again.

I don't think those sports writers -- nor do I -- think that the Seahawks necessarily would have won the game had the officiating been better. But the bad officiating happened, and one team was unfairly favored over the other (that seems to be almost universally agreed upon), and now we'll NEVER KNOW.

Yay for the mysteries of the world! X)

Good analysis of the game :O

Damn right there was robbery. Bah.

Hey, we need to hook up soon!

Yes, the officiating was lacking, but I don't think Seattle was robbed. No way. I'm just going to copy and paste what I wrote in another LJ:

I don't think Seattle played to the level they had the rest of this year. Besides, if they'd had gotten the TD that was taken from them, and Big Ben wouldn't have gotten the questionable TD (which would have been a field goal then) you'd have had a tied game.

I think you have to look at the coaching... The two minute drill that Seattle had at the end of the first half and at the end of the game was pretty pathetic. Mike Holmgren is supposed to be an offensive genius and his whole offense has been with him for years and years, yet they still didn't run a decent two minute drill. Horrible clock management is just wrong at this level.

I felt bad for Hasselbeck because he played his rear off. He's worked so hard for so long...

I don't think Seattle was robbed, necessarily, but neither do I think the Steelers would have necessarily won if the officiating hadn't been so skewed. As I said to Faith, the point is that we'll never know. Momentum means so much in a game. If the Seahawks hadn't had that first tdown taken away from them, or any other time in which they achieved great field position only to start at 1st and 20 again, who knows what would have happened afterward? To repeat, there's only so many times you can beat a guy down before he won't bother to get up again.

That's not to say they would have won the game for sure, even if the officials had stayed out of it. The Steelers might have won anyway; they made some good plays, Seattle didn't capitalize on some of their opportunities, and the teams seemed equally matched. But again, we'll never know.

Were you rooting for the Steelers going in? Because I have to say, I don't blame anyone who preferred the Steelers for feeling exactly as you feel. Nor do I blame Seahawks fans for naturally feeling that their team was robbed. I'm more interested in the in-betweeners, the people who didn't really care. That's why the poll and the article from the guy who hated the Seahawks are so interesting to me -- they didn't have anything at stake, so their opinions are less biased than those of Steelers and Seahawks fans.

I wasn't really rooting for anyone. Once the Broncos were out of it, I was just watching as a football fan.

I too can understand the feelings on either side, but I honestly think you have a situation here of intense (aka die-hard) fans on either side so you're going to hear a lot of debate on this one.

Yes, you can't say how it would have gone, and there is a lot to say for momentum, as well as comebacks.

From my perspective - that of one who didn't care who won - I wish the Seattle fans would gracefully lose and not let this taint an incredible season and a team with amazing talent.

Well, Gian, I appreciate the "let's move on from this" spirit of what you're saying. Truly. But 'gracefully losing' a fair game is one thing; the issue is that a lot of people didn't think it WAS fair. If I see a child being bullied by another child on the playground, I'm not going to say, "Well, that's the way it is. Don't bother to stand up for yourself." (An admittedly imperfect analogy, but it's all I got.) What people are doing is calling into question some pretty dubious calls that were made during the course of the game. IMHO it is not only their right to do so, but it *should* be done. That's how we keep the system and everyone's noses clean.

Besides, I don't think the "don't fight for what you believe in, just take the crap dished out to you" mentality is really embraced in possibly the most American sport of all. <g>

And I guess I didn't make my point very well that it's NOT just Seahawks fans who had their sense of justice offended. Unless the Seahawks have waaaaay more fans than I had imagined in my wildest dreams, given how many people have cried foul. It's human nature -- or at least American nature -- to speak out against perceived wrongs. And that's what's happening here.

I'm not exactly sure what to say here; this discussion seems to have gone off on a tangent I wasn't expecting...

I just feel the need to clarify a few things. I respect the Seahawks a lot and all this fuss is over something that can't be changed, which is taking away from the great year the team had. I also think it's a shame toward the Steelers, who had a lot of great plays (Hines Ward's TD and Willie Parker's amazing run TD), meaning the game wasn't exactly given to them.

In regard to your comment, I do think people should stand up for what they believe in, and work to make change, especially when they feel they've suffered an injustice. I certainly wasn't saying what seems to be implied in your comment ("don't fight for what you believe in, just take the crap dished out to you") but IMHO, I do think there is a better way to handle this situation.

What I've been seeing and reading has been very rude and often downright trashy, as can be the nature of football, but I prefer to see people take the highroad and be class acts. Obviously, I don't mean just the fans and players, but also the media and organizational members.

Or, perhaps I'm just coming from the perspective of a fan whose team had to lose four Superbowls before winning one, so I am used to taking a loss with more experience than I care to recall. *g*

Hee, sorry about that. Email threads tend to do that, don't you think? It's hard to get one's true meaning across sometimes, when it's just in typeset. :p I do understand what you're saying, and maybe part of the problem is that I haven't been exposed to any of it aside from the headlines I read the day after the game. So I'm not privvy to the trash talking that's apparently been going on, and no one else around me is interested enough to talk about it. My reaction/thoughts came purely from my own interpretation of the game, and ESPN's Monday headlines. If I'd had other forms of exposure, I might be coming from a different place. So anyway, peace sista. :D

*nods* Email threads tend to do that, don't you think?

Absolutely they do, and once in a while I get quite surprised where they go... not that I'm thinking of Pepsi stick-figure smut or anything. :P

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Alas.

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