Pittsburgh STEALERS

I posted this to another board, but I thought I'd put it here too, and elaborate a little, for you all to ruminate on:

I sure hate to complain, but it seems that every time I've seen the Steelers in a playoff game or a Super Bowl, the calls ALWAYS go in their favor. They started off the game snapping the ball about 10 seconds after the play clock expired - no call. Roethlesberger dumps the ball getting sacked - no intentional grounding call - in fact, a "roughing the passer" call against the Cards after he intentionally grounds the ball. Harrison pounds an opposing player during a kickoff for no reason whatsoever, and while there was a penalty, he should have been ejected. Their last touchdown was very questionable, and I don't think the guy had both feet down. Even the 100-yard interception runback was suspicous, and hubby and I think the guy went out of bounds about 5 yards or so before the endzone. I also think that the personal foul against the Cardinal who they say "ran over" the holder was unfair - he had too much momentum to stop, it wasn't intentional. It was just a way to give the Steelers a "do-over."

I hate to say "sour grapes," because neither of these was "my" team, but can we just get a fair game? That's all I ask. I mean, the refs should have just come out in white and yellow jerseys and yellow pants. And could there have been any more Steeler-worship from the announcers? "I think a guy makes a play like that, you have to call it a touchdown!" Uh.. no, John Madden, it's not a touchdown unless he actually gets into the endzone. (which he did, but that's beside the point, and the play was under review when he made the comment).

The same phenomenon happened during the Super Bowl game against the Seattle Seahawks. Now, the Seahawks had their issues, and probably wouldn't have won anyway, but just like yesterday, the most outlandish calls were made against them. Hubby commented yesterday that the Cardinals defense was probably scared to touch any Steeler because they might get a penalty called against them. No calls against the Steelers in the second half, until about 4 minutes left to play - and a kajillion yards worth of Cardinals penalties. Some of them were pretty blatant, but there was blatant stuff going on with the Steelers too, that never got called - see examples above. I think the true penalty was "Excessive Cardinalness" and "Too many Cardinal points on the scoreboard." It had to be pretty disheartening for them. Yet they still came back from well behind and came >< that close to winning. Bless their hearts.

The halftime show sucked, in my opinion. Springsteen wheezed like a 60-year-old, two-pack-a-day asthmatic. Maybe he should have spent some time warming up his voice this week, rather than railing against WalMart for their employment practices. Brucie, I bet you weren't complaining when you were raking in royalties for your "WalMart Exclusive" greatest hits CD. And what did he say at the end of the performance? "I'm going to DISNEYLAND!!" Bruce - you're in FLORIDA - that would be DISNEY WORLD.