Officials fumbled it this time
I’ve let the Super Bowl kind of fester in my brain the past
couple of days, and I really feel there would be more backlash to
what transpired on Sunday night if it didn’t involve the Arizona
Cardinals.
Officials fumbled it this time
I’ve let the Super Bowl kind of fester in my brain the past couple of days, and I really feel there would be more backlash to what transpired on Sunday night if it didn’t involve the Arizona Cardinals.
I’ve beaten up on the Cardinals a little bit recently, and although I picked the Steelers to win, it seems few are making the case for Arizona and why they have every right to be annoyed along with the Seattle Seahawks.
The Steelers won Super XLIII 27-23, and they were the better team, no doubt. But this is the second straight Super Bowl the Steelers have won that will forever be shrouded in officiating ineptitude.
I’m not going to break down each and every bad call, because bad calls happen in every game, and not just in football.
The penalty differential – 106 yards against the Cardinals to just 56 yards against the Steelers – as well as the blatant non-call after Santonio Holmes used the football as a prop during his game-winning touchdown catch celebration, an NFL no-no, are all pretty absurd in their own right.
But where the refs really blew it was in the final play of the game, and it may just be the unfortunate post game storyline everyone remembers.
Trailing by four points, Arizona was driving for a potential game-winning score when quarterback Kurt Warner fumbled the ball. Pittsburgh recovered and went on to win.
Simple.
But was it a fumble? Was his arm moving forward? Or did LaMarr Woodley jar the ball loose at the right time?
Whether Warner fumbled on the last play or threw an incompletion, officials should have reviewed the last play extensively. They didn’t, and there will always be a question mark surrounding the game.
Sports Illustrated’s Peter King noted that replay official Bob McGrath had approximately 90 seconds to determine whether or not the play should be reviewed down on the field.
Ninety seconds? If that doesn’t seem like a heckuva lot of time to make the correct call on the biggest play of the biggest game of the year, well, that’s because it’s not. It’s not much time at all.
I can’t do much of anything in 90 seconds, and I certainly couldn’t figure out if Warner’s arm was moving forward or not in the allotted time.
With all the controversy that has surrounded NFL officials this season, it’s truly amazing that this particular controversial play never gets reviewed, if only to stamp out any and all controversy that a non-review would cause.
“We confirmed it was a fumble,” said Mike Pereira, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, to NBC recently. “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.”
Of course, what in the world did you expect him to say? You didn’t think he was going to admit it was an incomplete pass, did you?
Pereira’s explanation confirms it was a fumble, which should satisfy absolutely no one. Football fans don’t want to be told it was a fumble; they want to see it themselves.
Officials did review other plays, though, including Holmes’ game-winning catch in the end zone. But when you look at that play, and clearly notice that Holmes’ feet never even left the ground while the ball was secured tight at all times, it makes the final play look like a joke.
Holmes’ catch was obviously a catch after looking at the replay, yet it deserved a review anyway. In regards to Warner’s fumble/incompletion, however, I still can’t tell what happened.
And yet, no review.
“I was really surprised on that one because I was definitely moving my arm forward to throw the ball,” Warner said. “I thought I’d almost gotten the ball off, so yeah, it does surprise you that in that kind of situation – five seconds to go to decide the Super Bowl – you would think it was something they’d do. But maybe somebody saw it clearly.”
Maybe McGrath did see it clearly.
Maybe he didn’t.
