Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Tempers, tantrums, conspiracy theories

Wow, some heads sure did explode about the officiating. I did not realize the extent of the head-exploding among some self-styled "neutral" parties until the last hour or so, as I just scoured the coverage out there. The outrage! The hyperbole!

Some unsolicited advice: if your headline and argument is foaming at the mouth, you have no credibility when you claim "neutrality" or even rationality in paragraph one or three. Get a blog, you wacko nutjobs, until you get a more grown-up grip on your prose and emotions.

I can understand the bad press about the overall inconsistency of both teams. I can understand the thesis that runs, "both teams played bad, but Seattle played worse, so the Steelers won." OK, maybe. You could play it that way I suppose.

In contrast, some of the things people wrote last night and early this morning - for generally reputable sports sites - should be flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. It's just embarrassing.

Neither team played a great game. The Steelers, however, had more and better big plays. And they were more poised, they were better coached, and they better executed on special teams. They did more little things better. Total yards? Time of possession? Since when did those stats determine the outcome? Quarterback rating? Who gives a damn? When did we start talking like QB rating "should" determine the final score--if the officiating is "perfect"? There are all kinds of ludicrous arguments out there to the effect that Seattle "won" or "dominated" (!) the game. Wow, wow, wow. I am shocked I say, shocked at the epidemic of unsportsmanlike SB analysis.

The team with the most points won. And they deserved to win - they scored twice as many points as the other team, for crissakes.

Steeler fans and Steeler players have nothing to apologize for, and nothing to feel guilty about. The idea did not even occur to me until I read it in print. I imagine 99.8% of all Steeler fans feel the same way. It was a football game like hundreds of other football games. A little disappointing to watch, but hardly a disappointment to finish. Or savor all day today, next week, and for years to come.

When did they perfect officiating, and since when did we have zero tolerance for close-call ambiguity? That should be water off the duck's back to any seasoned observer of the game. What's gotten into you non-Steeler fan people? Are you all so easily rattled as Mike Holmgren? He threw in-game tantrums and whined like a guilty child at the end of each half, and everyone identifies with him?

Why are some of you so high-strung? The paranoia about government and hatred of judicial authority. This is football: save that for your politics. Don't crap in the stands. The refs are firemen and ambulance drivers, Boy Scout leaders and church deacons, Dads and Pop-Pops, upstanding citizens in most every sense of those words. Get a grip, you crazy gripers.

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