Running NFL thread 10/22

If it's fixed, Junkie, the NFL did a lousy job in that Indy game because the wrong team won. And you want me to believe that they would actually get the Super Bowl right at a neutral site?

 

Well, glad to see I'm not all alone on that 18th century Polynesian island.

 

Yeah, definitely a fanboy.

And yes, I am a Steelers fanboy. I have freely admitted that many times on this site. I don't cover them and like Oz, I would NEVER write about a team I covered on here.

I'm not dismissing the thought that the Steelers got some bad calls their way in that game. I don't agree with the argument that the officials won the game for them and I still haven't heard an argument for a fix that makes any sense, but if you want to say the officials gave the Steelers an edge through sheer incompetence, that's a more reasonable approach. I disagree with it, but I don't dismiss it as ridiculous.

And let's get this one clear. Blackshear held Haggans. No question. It was the kind of call that is often let go, but he held him and that was the only reason Hasselbeck had time to make that throw.

 

For the record, the crowd at Super Bowl XXXIX was infinitely more one-sided in favor of the Eagles than the crowd last year in favor of Pittsburgh. Patriots fans, perhaps a bit jaded, perhaps having spent all their sports disposable income on the Red Sox' championship run, were not there at all. Most of those who came to Jacksonville would up scalping their ducats when deranged Eagle fans made them offers they couldn't refuse.

 

Seattle to Detroit: 2,000 miles.
Pittsburgh to Detroit: 300 miles.

 

Ok, now this one is slightly less ridiculous. I don't think it actually happened, but I won't say it is outside the realm of possibility that the league went out of its way to allow more Steelers' fans to get tickets than Seahawks fans. That is a very long way from using the officials to fix a game.

But there are rational explanations to why the crowd was dominated by Steelers fans. fmrsped mentioned one of them. You could do Pittsburgh to Detroit as a relatively short drive trip. Much easier travel for Pittsburgh fans than those from Seattle.

Also, the way the Steelers travel was part of the equation. The crowd at the Georgiadome often made it sound like a Steelers home game this past Sunday and they do that almost everywhere they go. And I guarantee there were a very large number of Steelers fans that started going after Super Bowl tickets before the team even won the AFC title, just in case they got there.

The Seahawks matter in Seattle, but not like the Steelers do in Pittsburgh. The organization doesn't have the roots and the tradition that the Steelers have and those things really do make a difference. Remember, football fans who are now in their 30s and 40s grew up during the Steelers run of four championships in six seasons in the 1970s. The Seahawks didn't play their first regular-season game until 1976.

 

This doesn't concern the Steelers, and if it was addressed anywhere I missed it, but what was up with the ball placement on that killer punt by the Giants? They downed it on the one-inch line; when the Cowboys lined up it was on the one-yard line.

The safety made it moot, of course, but is it an NFL rule, or did the Cowboys center game the system a bit?

 

Please, by all means, move on. I'll respond all day on Steelers stuff, but I admit we have done a lot of threadjacking here.

I don't think there is any rule that moves the ball to the one. Probably what you suggested, the center nudging the ball forward.

 

The keg's not on the coffee table; somebody threw it in the bonfire.

 

Oh, I see. Not only did the league put the fix in, they adapted the fix once the Colts were gone to favor the Steelers.

Oliver Stone should make a movie about this shit. Wonder who they could get to play Jerome Bettis.....

 

Gladly took it? So did the officials fix that third-down conversion to set up the first score? That 75-yard touchdown run? That Randle El touchdown pass? What else did the officials rig in that game?

I must have missed the part where Triple H knocked out one official with the folding chair, which allowed the Heartbreak Kid to come in and throw flags here or there. Because you know wrestling is fixed, like our Super Bowls, apparently.

 

out of place, I'm not with you on Haggans. I do however respect your willingness to at least take a peek at the other side of this. I'm happy to argue about all of this bullshit until the cows come home. Still won't change the outcome.