Checksum Arcanius

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a biased observer. After the armpittsburg stealers stole (with help from the referees) Super Bowl XL from the Seahawks, I have basically been anti-steeler. So I was unhappy that they made it to the Super Bowl again, but I held out hope that the Arizona Cardinals would be able to pull out a win. Nevertheless, I maintained a nagging doubt — the mighty, popular, league-favored, presidentally-blessed stealers versus a relatively small market, perennially crappy, barely-sold-out-playoffs NFC West team like Arizona — who would the league want to win? Would the referess try to throw the game again?

Unfortunately, the nagging doubt was right, and for the second time in four years, the stealers have an illegitimate Vince Lombardi Trophy.

This time, at least, the referees tried to hide their bias a little more. They overturned plays that they obviously had to instead of ignoring evidence (like the phantom quarterback sneak touchdown in XL). They even threw some flags against Pittsburg when it wouldn’t hurt them (the defensive holding against Fitzgerald) or when it was beyond blatantly obvious (the atrocious on-field assault by Harrison). They nevertheless conveniently ignored holding on Harrison’s runback, at least one blatant steelers block-in-the-back, and let us not forget the phantom roughing the passer and running into the holder penalties. Thirty yards given to the stealers right when there initial momentum was in question.

Then of course there were the two terrible calls against Arizona that required coach’s challenges. Unlike in tennis, however, in football you don’t get an infinite number of correct challenges — you only get three, maximum, so basically the officials tied the hands of the Cardinals by making sure that they couldn’t use a challenge on a play they weren’t absolutely sure was wrong.

The coup de grace, of course, was the failure to review Kurt Warner’s “fumble” at the end of the game. It sure looked to me like his arm was coming forward when the ball came out, but even it it really was a fumble, there is no excuse (other than wanting the stealers to win) for not reviewing the play.

The stealers may have six super bowl titles, but at least two of them came at the expense of teams that outplayed them and outcompeted them throughout both games, and deserved to win. Instead, in both cases, the league and its referees ensured a different outcome. This is modern American sports, I guess. Make the game exciting, but make sure the right team wins. It makes me sick. I just wonder if I’ll have the gumption to stay away.

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