An ESPN poll on the Superbowl officiating!
 

Vote: Did the officials steal the Super Bowl?



1) What grade would you give referee Bill Leavy's officiating crew for Super Bowl XL?


48.9% F

25.3% D

14.7% C

9.3% B

1.8% A


2) How do you rate the overall state of officiating in the NFL?


35.1% Average

31.8% Bad

20.0% Good

11.3% Abysmal

1.8% Excellent


3) Did the officiating in Sunday's game unfairly favor one team?


78.8% Unfairly favored the Steelers

16.5% The right calls were made

4.8% Unfairly favored the Seahawks


4) Which played the biggest role in determining the outcome of the game?


56.3% Officials missing calls

29.5% Seahawks not making plays

14.2% Steelers making plays


5) Do you think the official made the right call on Darrell Jackson's offensive pass interference in the endzone, negating a Seattle touchdown in the first quarter?


73.4% No

20.7% Yes

5.9% I'm not sure


6) Do you think the football broke the plane of the goal line on Ben Roethlisberger's touchdown run in the second quarter?


58.4% No

26.8% Yes

14.8% I'm not sure


7) Do you think the official made the right call on Sean Locklear's holding penalty in the fourth quarter, negating an 18-yard reception to the one-yard line by Jerramy Stevens?


74.2% No

15.3% Yes

10.5% I'm not sure


8) Do you feel that you understand what constitutes a ''football move'' on plays involving potential fumbles?


63.6% Yes

36.4% No


9) How much would creating full-time officiating positions, instead of the current part-time positions, help improve the quality of NFL officiating?


45.3% A lot

42.4% A little

12.4% Not at all


10) Which major sport has the best officials?


44.8% MLB

22.6% NHL

20.6% NBA

11.9% NFL


Total Votes: 81,813

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sports...?event_id=2011

RE: An ESPN poll on the Superbowl officiating!
 

Hey Cher, that was honestly the most horribly officiated Super Bowl I have ever seen. The officials helped give the media exactly what they wanted-a Steelers win. I personally didn't care who won, although I was pulling for Seattle since they had never been & Pittsburgh already had 5. However, to give one team such an edge (& so obvious at that) is terrible for the game. In no way did Pittsburgh out play Seattle. It kind of reminded me of some Saints-Falcons games.

Officiating was horrible, the game wasn't good as I thought it was going to be, kind of boring if you ask me.
Back to the officials, these guys go through a lot of training, they are trained to recognize a pass interference, etc, I understand that the speed of the game is very fast but you have to realize that the refs are right their on the field with the players and can see the plays better than we can in real time and get paid well to make the right calls, the offensive pass interference in the end-zone against the Hawks was just pitiful, you can't make a crazy call like that one in any game much less in the SB.

The Zebras have really ruined some NFL games this past season. Namely, Saints games.

come on, it wasn't that bad...

i absolutly hate the steelers, but i have to say that the seahawks had plenty of opportunities to win and THEY not he officials lost the game for themselves. they missed 2 field goals, had some horrible play calling and a ton of dropped balls.

It's amazing how the press really wanted to Steelers to win, and now that they have it's OK to blast them and the officials. I hate the Steelers, but I only think there was one bad call in the whole game. The Offensive Pass Interference on Seattle to negate the TD.

I think the official that made the call for Roethlisberger's TD could have been more decisive up front. How do you run on to the feild with only one arm raised and then change it once farther in? I was or wasn't a TD, call it immediately. If you had a doubt about it getting in, then it didn't. As for the replay, it wouldn't have overturned the call either way. If it had been called down at the goalline you couldn't reverse either.

I feel the Referees try as best they can. Do they make ALL the right calls? No, but they try and it's just that technology has gotten so good it's easier to spot a mistake. Remember before HD, before eighteen camera angles per play, before replay? People complained about the calls, but didn't have a way to EASILY show the mistakes. I don't think officiating has gotten better/worse, but we've gotten better at catching it when they make a mistake.

I thought the refs were obviously trying to throw the game towards the Steelers. It was a a comment that I made to myself before the first half was over, and when the subject of MVP came up I immediately thought of the referees. I think it is something that we saw a lot this year in a lot of different games (Indy/Pitt for an example.)

I have always thought that the Saints have frequently been on the wrong side of crucial penalties, and I have, since 1967, wondered if some games were being thrown or fixed. This year it has become very obvious and I wonder if the NFL isn't going in the direction of the WWF, where, in there minds, they are entertaining us. Who cares if it is not real. It seems to be a sign of the time. Look at all the reality shows on the air that are 90% fake. Who cares if it is not really real, as long as the general public is watching and buying the products they endorse.

Lemme preface: didn't care who won; watched to be entertained; wasn't entertained that much (game stunk)

I think this is more the media going into one of their crusades to have something to ***** about and create controversy.... referees make bad calls every game. As stated before by BJ, it is very different to make a judgement decision on a play you see in fractions of a second than to make a judgement decision after you have seen the play 15 times from 15 different angles in slow motion going backwards and forwards zooming in on a blade of grass.

As far as the SB, my impression is that the referees were calling the game very tight:

The Matt Hasselbeck fumble was a fumble. Farrior grazed Matt's hip with his fingertips, which obviously did not cause Matt to go to the ground, heck didn't even change Matt's trajectory, and Hasselbeck took at least 3 steps after he was touched. How many steps can a player take after he's been grazed by another player's fingertips? This is not a question of someone's knee being on the ground and being touched. Yet, the referees called down by contact.

The pass interference against Seattle was another example of the game being called too tight. If you look at the replay you'll see that the receiver had his hand on the DB's chest and as he made his cut the other way, the receiver's hand stayed there and his arm became fully extended before contact stopped. Unless you have some device on the DB's chest to measure the force that's being applied by the receiver, that sure looks like the receiver is pushing off.

The holding call when madden said "I didn't see holding", the Seattle tackle was behind the Piitsburgh player holding on to his shoulder with his arm. Speaking of that, that RT had many blatant holding penalties throughout the game that were not called. For example, on that pass to Jureviscious, the guy had a choke hold on the Pitt end, and the referees didn't call it.

On Ben's TD run, I thought the ball did cross the line after seeing the replay in slo-mo 10 times, but that one is obviously one of those that can go either way, even after looking at the replay 100 times.

As for Seattle *****ing about the referees:
Tell Softy Stevens not to drop passes in the endzone.
Tell Holmgren to manage the clock better during 2 minute warnings.
Tell your kicker not to miss 2 field goals.
Train your DB's so they can actually run 100 yards at full throttle and not be chased down by linemen.

I'll give them a pass on a hold but the one that brought back the big play for Seattle was a phantom hold it just wasn't there. The Steelers TD should have been reversed the Seattle TD should have counted. The Horse Collar that wasn't called. I would say that it wasn't enought to change the outcome of the game but after the Horse Collar it definately change momentum. Give the team 15 yards, another score from the holding and a TD, even if you still give pitt the TD, it would have seriously effected the games outcome to a degree.

How do you call illegal block below the waist on a guy that is trying to tackle someone. On the play where Seattle was called for holding, the DE was actually offsides on that play, and even if the guy did hold it was only to protect his QB from getting killed by a guy that had an illegal head start. On the play that Ben scored on, the ref was getting ready to spot the ball, and then mysteriously signaled TD after Ben moved the ball across the line. On the offensive pass interference, the ref did not throw the flag until the Pitt DB started complaining, not as soon as the alledged push-off occurred. If it were just one or two things, I could understand, but, to me, it was obvious who the zebras wanted to win...just like it was obvious that they wanted Indy to win two weeks prior to that game. I think the NFL is getting too much like the WWF....and, just like in wrestling, there will always be people who believe it is real no matter how hokey it looks.

I'll tell you what happened. They actually hired the officiating crew from Saints/Rams game. And I know y'all remember that garbage!! ;0)

You see, guys, here is my position on the whole thing. If you look at all of the people on the field at any given moment, the only ones who probably aren't millionaires is the refs. This makes them the idea candidates to pay off if you are interested in changing the outcome of a game. All they have to do, in most cases, is just make a call here or there that would negate a big play by one team, and usually nature will take care of the rest.

I don't really know what's up with the officials today, but I saw enough this year to lead me to believe that certain games are marked. It appeared to me that this may have been true in our first game against Carolina. It was one of the few games in the whole history of the Saints that it actually looked like the refs were trying to help us win. There were many other games this year that made me wonder. Anyway, my whole thing is this. I feel that if enough people start comparing the NFL to the WWF, then the NFL might get off their butts and do something about it if it is just poor officiating. I know they don't want that reputation, but if people just continue to take it without creating a stink, it may never change. Something really needs to be done.

Oh, with the way the media is carrying on with it, I have a feeling Tags will be talking with the head of refereeing. I would not be at all surprised if somebody lost work in playoff games. As well they should. You get payed (whether little or not-it's your job) to call a game fairly. If you can't do that job, then you should be canned. There are plenty of guys in college or high school for that matter that can call a game better than that crew did in Super Bowl XL.

I dont know why people seem so shocked. The officiating in games has been gettiong progressively worse over the years. I bleed black and gold, But being way up here in Baltimore, I have to watch a lot of non saints games.....making a lot of football I watch where I dont care who wins really.
I cant recall a single weekend where I didnt see officiating that was either god awful, or someone was getting paid!
This just happens to be a superbowl that had the same awful calls. I saw a post where someone stated that Seattle blew the game with dropped passes etc...
Do you think if they caught those passes that a flag would NOT have been thrown? Until I see at least ONE SINGLE weekend where I can see a game where I honestly dont care who wins, and I can say it looked like a good officiated game, Ill have to think good old TAG is behind these "fixed" games.
Come on...even with instant replay they are blowing calls?
in my opinon...no way they can do that so much and be honest.