It's All Lies...

On Wednesday evenings throughout the NFL season, the NFL's Head of Officiating Mike Pereira has had a weekly segment on NFL Total Access to clarify some of the officiating calls that happened in the previous week's games. As I'm sure some of you noted, Pereira wasn't on the NFL Network last night.

There's no limit to the reasons for his absence. The NFL had to shuffle back to its offices in New York City after 2 weeks in Detroit, everyone is in Hawai'i for the Pro Bowl, etc...So it's possible that they simply were not ready to give what will assuredly be a heavily scrutinized analysis of the officiating in Super Bowl XL. Not to mention that in their minds, there is no problem and that was a "well officiated game".

Denial is more than just a river in Egypt, my friends.

Look, I'm not one that believes that the game was rigged, on any level. Even with the horrible officiating, the Seahawks had several opportunities to win that game, but they didn't get it done. However, I'm morbidly curious as to what he has to say about the officiating in this game, and perhaps gain some insight into what the NFL has planned to improve the officiating after an NFL Playoff season that was full of horrible officiating.

It does concern me, as a fan, that the NFL is sounding more and more like the former Iraqi Minister of Information when it comes to explaining their officiating.

"Pass interference...#82 of the offense...10-yard penalty, repeat 2nd down"

And I know that the Steeler fans are going to point to a few of the calls that went against them. As well they should, too. They were penalized 3 times in the game for 20 yards, so sure, it's comparable.

What they're pointing to is the Jerramy Stevens "dropped" pass in the 1st quarter of a scoreless game. They feel it should've been ruled a fumble. Of course that's the same thing as taking a TD away from Darrell Jackson, and a 1st and goal from the 1 in the 4th quarter of a 4-point game. But what they miss about that blown call (and I agree it should've been ruled a fumble) is that James Farrior recovered the ball at his own 5-yard line. Farrior isn't exactly Antwan Randle-El, so at best he gets out to the 25 or 30 yard line. Two plays after that, Seattle's punter, Tom Rouen, put the ball into the end zone and the Steelers had the ball at their own 20. So at worst, the Steelers lost 10 yards of field position midway through the 1st quarter.

Hardly the same thing, but then again, this is the same group of fans that vandalized the home of the referee after the Colts-Steelers Divisional Playoff game.