Honestly I don't know why you keep defending the officiating. Your statements about the one bad call (Hasselbeck chop block) and the fact that some people in this forum are with you really don't matter. The fact is that a majority of the national media, and a majority of the fans (ESPN poll with 208k votes) believed the officiating was bad. You can't control public opinion or the opinion of the media.
DD,I appreciate you sharing your thoughts. If you feel the officiating was bad, or even terrible, that's your opinion. But when you state the "majority" of the media and fans believes that, I can disagree.
I'll let pinequick's earlier posts speak to the validity of Internet polls. (Note he is a Cowboy fan who dislikes the Steelers.)
As to the media, I've made quick visits to one newspaper from each NFL city. Nearly one quarter of the sites required registration or were not archiving articles, so I ignored them. I also stayed out of Seattle and Pittsburgh. Out of the remaining 20 or so cities, I saw only four that specifically questioned the officiating. Those are New York, Chicago, Boston and Kansas City. Even in those papers, it was not a unanimous opinion.
So I don't think the majority of the media believes the officiating was bad. What I did see was:
The same articles from Chicago and New York being reprinted in a few of the other papers.
Many articles talking about how Holmgren and/or the Seahawks believe the officiating was bad.
An article talking about the media hyping the officiating as bad (Detroit)
Stories reporting that the NFL said the officiating was proper.
None of those advance your opinion that the majority of the media agrees the officiating was bad. Even on ESPN, you will see differing opinions. So what I see is ESPN and large cities being outspoken and promoting controversy by claiming the officiating was terrible. What a shock! However, when you look at the media as a whole, it's simply not a majority.
Edit to add: In many cases, the coverage looks like
this. A couple of excerpts:
Even his critics around the NFL admit that Titans Coach Jeff Fisher knows the rulebook as well as any of his peers.
Fisher, who is co-chairman of the NFL Competition Committee, conceded yesterday that the league had a tough weekend officiating-wise on Jan. 14-15 in the Divisional Playoffs. But he said he thinks much of the debate over officiating in Super Bowl XL was a result of the extensive media coverage of the game.
Fisher on some of the controversial calls in Super Bowl XL:
• Offensive pass interference against Seattle wide receiver Darrell Jackson that washed away a 16-yard touchdown catch: "Offensive pass interference is called when a receiver extends the arm and initiates contact resulting in separation between he and the defender. In my opinion that was the correct call. Now the difficulty with the call is you certainly can go in and look at other instances where there is separation where it's not called. Well, oftentimes it's not seen. But as the interpretation of the rule is concerned, that is offensive pass interference."
• Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger's touchdown plunge that was upheld by replay review: "The issue is not officiating, the issue is replay. The call went to review and because there was not indisputable evidence under the hood, the ruling on the field stood. Most times in a challenge situation that's going to be the case. It's not going to be reversed because there is not overwhelming, indisputable evidence.
"In the official's opinion the ball crossed the plane. We can't say based on the replays we got on the network feed that it didn't. Maybe it didn't, but you can't say that. It wasn't a situation where the ball ended up a yard short of the goal line and it was a disastrous type call. That was a very close call."
• Holding call against Seattle OT Sean Locklear that washed away an 18-yard pass: "By definition it's a hold. There is contact, there was a grab, there was restriction."
That seems logical. They go to the playoffs, so let's chant about how bad they used to be.
