It takes a Superbowl

Okay, so it's been months since I posted anything. But I'm back. Mostly the 'politics free zone' was a mistake. Most things I have found humerous or rant-worthy the last few months have been political. Now I'm gonna rant about football, which is probably too close to politics anyway.

How can I rant about football? It's OVER. Dead and stinkin'. Well, there is the ProBowl. As I said, over, dead and stinkin'. Who cares about the ProBowl? I wish the football pundit media did, maybe they could stop yammering about the 'bad calls' in the Superbowl. They could talk about the ProBowl, or they could admit there's no football going on and turn the sports pages over to the annual NBA/NHL battle for column space...but NO...they are creating a bad call controversy like some sort of desperate cottage industry.

The Seattle media is of course taking the lead. They want to talk endlessly about the pass interference call on Darrell Jackson. The ball is going to Jackson's left. He launches himself that direction with both feet and his right hand on the defender and makes the catch. There wasn't a lot of contact with the defender, but that IS pass interference...'pushing off to get an advantage'. Outside of the most rabid Seattle fans I don't think anyone is denying that there was interference. The big argument seems to be 'it wasn't MUCH contact, so it COULD have been let go since Seattle scored on the play'? Why? So the media could be screaming on Pittsburg's behalf instead?

The Seattle fans might be better served asking Jackson why he persistently ran his go routes like there was extra credit for tight-roping the sideline. Had he not been out of bounds on all his subsequent potential touchdowns the pass interference call would have been a moot point.

Then there's the Rothlisberger touchdown call. A Seattle defender has been quoted saying 'he didn't score, we pushed him back'. The Seattle media has blathered that for a week. I think the guy who said it is correct, they pushed him back. When he is about a foot and a half off the ground the ball is excruciatingly close to the goal line, and by the time he reaches the ground it is not. Before they pushed him back did the ball reach the goal line? Seattle fans say no, of course. Pittsburg fans say yes, of course. Anyone else who isn't trying to stoke a controversy says 'geez that was close' and moves on. That was about all anyone could say from watching the replay, including the referee who reviewed the call.

Then there's the offensive lineman called for holding who doesn't even deny that he held on the play. He just says the defender was offsides, like that makes holding okay. The media types of course break out the old chestnut about 'there's holding on every play'. No one bothers to mention that since the guy felt justified about the holding because of his beliefs about the offsides he just dragged the guy down like a crocodile with a gazelle. They also don't talk about the line officials on both sides of the field watching for offsides and false starts. There may be holding every play going uncalled, but when's the last time you saw the two guys staring straight down the line miss a false start or an offsides?

To top things off we have Mike Holmgren stirring the pot. He blamed the bad calls on his way off the field at halftime, and no doubt he continued to do so after the game. Maybe if he had been thinking less about bad calls at halftime he might have done something about the atrocious display of clock management his team had just finished the half with and they wouldn't have done even worse with the clock at the end of the game. That would be a lot to ask of him though, we are talking about a coach who complained about the officiating EVERY time his team lost this season. Hell, he complained about the officiating when his team WON!

I think today I read my last football column for the season. I expect they will all just be reruns from now until the draft.