Bill Leavy admits he made "mistakes" in Super Bowl XL

[officeglenn]

Admitting mistakes were made is a far cry from proving it was fixed. And it's an even further cry from grounds for overturning the result of a championship game.

Mistakes are going to be a part of any sport where humans are relied upon to judge or referee. Maybe I'm naïve, but I have to believe that, 99.9 per cent of the time, the refs go out there on any given day wanting to do the best job they possibly can and don't have any sort of ulterior motives.

Besides, what good would it do to make sure the Steelers win, aside from sating all the fans trotting out their "One for the Thumb" catchphrase that was already worn out?

The refs do their job like everyone else, wanting to do the best they can on any given day, and I'm sure the fact they made mistakes haunts them. In fact, Leavy says in the article linked by the OP that "It left me with a lot of sleepless nights ... I'll go to my grave wishing that I'd been better."

To err is human, to forgive is divine.

[NJTank]

Wasn't Hassleback called for "blocking below the waist" while trying to make a tackle after he through an interception?

Yes he was

If the refs did not cheat for the Steelers than the class act Jerome Bettis would not have taken the bus into the sunset as a winner, I mean the entire week was about Jerome Bettis and his last game, if he lost in his hometown Detroiit would it have not been a shame?

[infrared41]

What about Roger Goodell? Where's the investigation? Where's the apology to Mike Holmgren?

If I were running the NFL, the Steelers would be stripped of their "victory" and the Super Bowl XL win would be given to the Seahawks, trophy and all.

That is just flat out stupid. It was bad officiating. Every team deals with it at some point. Super Bowl or not, it happens. And in the NFL it happens a lot. For my money they're the worst officials in sports. They influence the outcome of way too many games. Keep in mind that this is a league where the first thing out of an announcers mouth after a long scoring play is usually "but there's a flag on the play." Seattle got screwed but the NFL got what it deserved with Super Bowl XL. The entire world got to see just how lousy NFL officiating can be.

That said, the idea of "stripping the Steelers of their victory" is just absurd...even for you.

[udubs03]

That is just flat out stupid. It was bad officiating. Every team deals with it at some point. Super Bowl or not, it happens. And in the NFL it happens a lot. For my money they're the worst officials in sports. They influence the outcome of way too many games. Keep in mind that this is a league where the first thing out of an announcers mouth after a long scoring play is usually "but there's a flag on the play." Seattle got screwed but the NFL got what it deserved with Super Bowl XL. The entire world got to see just how lousy NFL officiating can be.

That said, the idea of "stripping the Steelers of their victory" is just absurd...even for you.

While I agree that the NFL can be pretty rough when it comes to officiating, have you ever watched the NBA?

Edit: Also, the idea of stripping the Steelers of a victory is ludicrous unless it could be proven that the organization somehow influenced the officiating. Until then, you just have to chalk that one up to human error.

[PurpleRush]

What makes things worse about the QB sneak TD, is that the sideline official at the top of the screen came running to the pile with one hand up, clearly indicating the play was over, (as they do on any tackled-in-bounds, non-scoring play) and thus not a touchdown (or he would have made the td signal). So the man whose call it was to make got it right initially!

I was happily cheering this call, and then was shocked to see the lead official then say touchdown.

[Seadragon76]

The fact that he admitted to making those 'mistakes' is good enough for me, a long suffering Seahawk fan. My problem is what took him so long to admit it.

Look, it's been five years since that game. I, along with the fellow Seattle fans, had time to not only get over Super Bowl XL, but to move on with our lives. Yes, the media was clearly pro-Steelers and the crowd was clearly pro-Steelers, but you know what? Seattle blew that game. Yes, I admit it. All of those chances to put the Steelers away and they couldn't do it. It was compounded with very stupid penalties (Blocking below the waist from a QB? Really??).

In the end, the Seahawks blew it and I don't think they've recovered from it.

[Lights Out]

Besides, what good would it do to make sure the Steelers win, aside from sating all the fans trotting out their "One for the Thumb" catchphrase that was already worn out?

The Steelers have probably the most bandwagon fans around the country and sold far more merchandise than the Seahawks would have. That'd be the primary reason - money, money, money.

Roger Goodell wasn't commissioner yet when XL was played. Paul Tagliabue was.

I realize that, but since Tagliabue is no longer in charge, Goodell would have to comment and/or investigate.

I'll admit I overreacted by saying the Steelers should get their title taken away. Sorry about that. But I still think the NFL should do something for Seahawks fans as an apology.

[Ben5]

You seriously think this is some massive conspiracy to keep the Seahawks down and propel the Steelers to the title? If this was true, there would be a zero percent chance that any commissioner would investigate it, because if the biggest game in the sport is fixed, than the sport is a sham and they would, in fact, lose BILLIONS of dollars.

I would also like to point out that as soon as you say "If the Steelers wouldn't have gotten that touchdown in the first half..." then the rest of the game would be different. Plays are called not only for the down and distance, but for the score and the amount of time remaining. Maybe the Steelers would have called the game more aggressively and made up for the score in the second half. Or maybe not. Either way, we'll never know.

Bottom line: Steelers won, Seahawks lost, and that's not going to change.

[rams80]

Wasn't Hassleback called for "blocking below the waist" while trying to make a tackle after he through an interception?

Yes he was

If the refs did not cheat for the Steelers than the class act Jerome Bettis would not have taken the bus into the sunset as a winner, I mean the entire week was about Jerome Bettis and his last game, if he lost in his hometown Detroiit would it have not been a shame?

The phrase "poetic justice" comes readily to mind.

[Lee.]

Well, obviously they're going to have to replay the entire game in order for us to have closure.

[tBBP]

And lost in all that hubbub was the fact that Jerome Bettis wasn't the only Steeler returning to his hometown for SB Xtra Large...so was Larry Foote (not that it has anything to do with this.)

Basically, the 'Hawks were just participants on the field that day. Had they won, it probably would have been one of the bigger upsets in recent memory. But yeah, there were some real shady calls in that game that went against Seattle...and even with all that, they still could have won that game, had they just executed their game plan. I saw what Seattle was trying to do on offense, with all the QB rollouts, misdirections and such, and it was keeping the Steelers' defense off-balance a good bit, but receivers running down the sidelines only to end up running out of bounds on their way down there didn't help. Neither did 6'10" tight ends with waffle irons for hands (Jerramy Stevens).

In short...neither team played a good offensive game. In fact, both pretty much sucked on both sides of the ball. Having said that, the Steelers made just enough big plays (i.e. Randle El's option pass to Hines Ward for TD) to win the game.

[DustDevil61]

Now my dad, known for being a big Seahawks fan, will not let this one die (and he never did, when talking about this game).

Any situation like this needs to be properly and independantly investigated, as speculation will not die concerning conspiracy theories and the like. Just look at the NBA's 2002 Western Conference Title between the Lakers and Kings, and then all the other iffy calls made over the years and how that league has handled it. There still hasn't been much progress made in that, if you ask me.

While they're at it, why don't they investigate the very end of Super Bowl XLIII? The Cardinals could have had one last chance if the call was reviewed and overturned. Not a peep was made when the Steelers quickly kneeled the ball and ran out the clock.

My inner conspiracy theorist (relax, even I don't always trust him) seems to think that they just wanted to give the Steelers the title so Dan Rooney could go up and thanking the newly-sworn-in president, but I don't think they would fix the biggest TV event in the country just to subject people to see something so politically skewed. Then again, the tagline for the 2008 season, as well as Super Bowl XLIII, was, "Believe in Now," which isn't too different from Obama's "Hope" campaign. And it was on NBC.

[Lights Out]

Basically, the 'Hawks were just participants on the field that day. Had they won, it probably would have been one of the bigger upsets in recent memory.

How do you figure that? Seattle went 13-3 that year and had the best record in the NFC by far. Pittsburgh went 11-5 and didn't even win their own division.

[Seadragon76]

Basically, the 'Hawks were just participants on the field that day. Had they won, it probably would have been one of the bigger upsets in recent memory.

How do you figure that? Seattle went 13-3 that year and had the best record in the NFC by far. Pittsburgh went 11-5 and didn't even win their own division.

While that is true, there were other points of contention that helped make this seem possible. Part of it was the proximity of Detroit for Steeler fans. It's a short trip from Pittsburgh to Detroit (Which could be done in a day by car) while it's a long plane ride from Seattle to Detroit. Therefore, you have more Steeler fans there and therefore, it creates a psuedo home field advantage for Pittsburgh.

Also, there was the feel good story of Jerome Bettis returning home and hopefully bringing a championship to his team before he headed off into the sunset. The media ate this up (and to this day, I still feel that they sort of portrayed the Seahawks as the villians in this whole story, which is rediculous since they were the better team).

These two major factors played a role within the idea of saying that if Seattle won, it would of been an upset.

[tBBP]

Basically, the 'Hawks were just participants on the field that day. Had they won, it probably would have been one of the bigger upsets in recent memory.

How do you figure that? Seattle went 13-3 that year and had the best record in the NFC by far. Pittsburgh went 11-5 and didn't even win their own division.

Sometimes, records don't tell the whole story. (Ask the Colts how much a league-best record means.) Bear in mind the Steelers got on a hot streak as (I believe) the #6 seed, from the wild card all the way to the big game. (I'll leave out the tilt versus the Colts, lest I rile up some Coltheads up in here.) Once they got there, the story was set...Steelers going for title #5, team legend/MVP Jerome Bettis playing his last game, the championship game, in his hometown...added to about an 80/20 split in the crowd. (I thoroughly believe every Lion fan in Detroit became a Steeler fan that day.) Add all that up, and you got one helluva story. That's what I meant by one of the greater upsets--had the 'Hawks prevailed, all that buildup would have been for naught.

And since DustDevil brought it up, if anything needed to be looked into during SB43, it was James Harrison's runback of that interception. At least two different Cardinals players were blocked in the back--including Fitzgerald, who was the one who eventually caught him in the end zone, if I remember right. Beyond that, no one single play really cost the Cardinals that game--Ken Whisenhunt's stupid-ass game plan did. I knew in the days leading up to the game that fool was going to try to force the running game into his former team's throats, never mind the fact the Cardinals hadn't had a running game all season. It wasn't up until the fourth quarter that the guy finally came to his senses and went back to what got the Cardinals in that game to begin with--the vertical passing game. Had he pressed the Steelers' DBs from the beginning, he probably would have had more success trying to run the ball, but his arrogance got in the way and it pretty much cost them.

[Magnus]

Well, all I can say is, I knew it. Should have had this guy on the field instead.

[Lights Out]

Well, yeah, it certainly would have been disappointing to the league, the media, and the crowd to see their golden boys (the Steelers) lose, but in terms of the actual game, it wouldn't have been an upset, it would have been the better team winning.

[goalieboy82]

some people thing that Super Bowl III was rigged in order to make the AFL?NFL merger look like a good idea.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I remember rooting for the Steelers in the Super Bowl (it was about eight months before I moved to Seattle), and also feeling underwhelmed by them. My impression of that season is that the Seahawks finally overcame their hump, after years of being a very good team, and won their division. The Steelers, on the other hand, kind of lucked their way in to the big game.

That's not to say that they didn't deserve to be there, because of course they did. I do remember an all-of-a-sudden lionization of that Steelers team that certainly wasn't there before the season started.

[PurpleRush]

It would have been an upset, because the Steelers are known for winning titles, and Seattle needed their endzone to say "Seattle Seahawks" so the 40 million casual fans watching around the globe would know who they were (as with the Cardinals too).