Bill and Bus’ bogus journey

Well, well, well … it finally happened.

The under appreciated Bill Cowher and the oversized (and over-hyped) Jerome Bettis finally got their Super Bowl rings. After 14 years as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cowher won the big one, and Detroit’s favorite son, Bettis, doesn’t even have to get on the team bus – he’s already home.

It’s a feel-good fairytale with a storybook ending. Who wouldn’t want the season to end this way? Surely the league headquarters were more than pleased with the Steelers 21-10 win over the Seattle Seahawks. I mean, they couldn’t have scripted it any better, could they? Could they?

I’m not a conspiracy theorist who believes the National Football League would ever fix a game. I truly don’t believe that commissioner Paul Tagliabue and friends would pull a Vince McMahon and start scripting who wins each contest. There would be too many people involved for that secret to remain kept.

But as I was watching Super Bowl XL Sunday night, I couldn’t help but notice that every major decision worked in favor of the eventual champions – the Pittsburgh Steelers. Call after call just seemed to go their way.

With Bettis and teammate Ben Roethlisberger stinking up the joint throughout the first half, it seemed that the officiating crew decided to take matters into their own hands.

Not since RB Mike Alstott’s gimmie two-point conversion back in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 36-35 win over the Washington Redskins Nov. 13 had referees been so blatant in their effort to give free points away. Seriously, Roethlisberger still hasn’t made it into the endzone.

You know the play – on third down with less than two minutes left in the first half, Roethlisberger fakes a hand off to RB Jerome Bettis and then rolls out to the left and heads for the endzone with Bettis’ big ass blocking. Seeing the Seattle defenders charging his way, Roethlisberger dives for the goal line, but he never gets there. Replay clearly shows the Pittsburgh quarterback move the ball to the goal line as he’s looking up to see the referee’s call.

Head linesman Mark Hittner hesitated, then ruled it a touchdown, and referee Bill Leavy somehow upheld the ruling after an instant-replay review. If the zebras make the right call it’s fourth down and Cowher sends out the kicking team. Don’t tell me he’d go for the touchdown – after three failed tries Cowher would take the field goal in a heartbeat. He’d be happy knowing his team got the ball to start the second half with the score tied 3-3.

And unfortunately for Seattle, the referees were just getting started.

There was a terrible holding call on Sean Locklear that turned a Seattle first and goal on the two to second and 20 from the 40. Instead of having a first down on the two-yard line with 12:35 left in the game, the Seahawks were now 40 yards away trailing 14-10.

Two plays later, Seahawks QB Matt Hasselbeck overthrew a pass intended for WR Darrell “Spoon Man” Jackson that was intercepted by CB Ike Taylor. Instead of pouting, Hasselbeck ran as fast as you could expect a quarterback to move, and tackled Taylor. But get this – he was penalized on the play. The officials called a personal foul for an illegal chop block on Hasselbeck.

A chop block is a tactic made famous because of the Denver Broncos offensive linemen diving at defenders knees to take them out of the play. The penalty should be called on an offensive player who is blocking – not a defender (which Hasselbeck was in this case) making a tackle. How Leavy couldn’t get this basic Football 101 rule right is beyond me. I mean, he’s supposedly the best official the NFL has, right?

This is where I vent about the biggest reoccurring problem with the NFL – the horrible officiating. While Leavy was looking at the replay of the phantom Roethlisberger touchdown, the network showed an interesting stat. In the three years since the current instant replay system was instituted, Leavy has overturned only 23 percent of all of the reviewed plays – the fewest of any referee.

Now remember, Leavy is working the Super Bowl, so he’s been deemed the best referee the NFL has. So it’s not a stretch to say other referees will attempt to emulate him in order to be a part of future Super Bowls. By rewarding Leavy, the NFL is essentially saying to other referees that if they overturn a challenged play, they’re admitting they blew the call initially. Basically, it’s better for them to stick to their wrong call than to get it right and have it count as an overturned play. I know that no one likes to be wrong, but I don’t think referees should be the final voice on instant replay. They’ve screwed it up enough that they should lose their privileges. The NFL should hire a handful of officials whose sole purpose is to sit up in a replay booth and wait for any challenged plays. The official in the booth would not be a part of the officiating crew on the field; he would simply be an impartial mediator. Then, instead of giving the referee (who may or may not be impartial) the call, the decision is made by someone who has nothing to win or lose. Then maybe, just maybe, the games would be decided by the players. There’s a novel concept.

Wouldn’t it be better for everyone involved if Seahawk fans woke up Monday morning and said “our team didn’t get it done,” instead of wondering what might have been because of consistently bad officiating? And to think, Steelers linebacker Joey Porter thought the league had something against his team …

Brian Murphy wishes Jack Bauer played sports. Email him at murf@the5holes.com.