Stupor Bowl
Normally I wouldn't use this space for sports discussions, but I just wanted to congratulate the Pittsburgh Steelers on winning the lamest Super Bowl in history. I've got nothing against the Steelers. It's nice to see Jerome Bettis get a ring. He's a classy guy and he deserves to enjoy the view from atop the mountain. There are a lot of nice guys on the Steelers. Phil Cowher plays an incredibly boring and ugly brand of football, but he gets results. I also don't have any particular affinity for the Seahawks. They squandered a hatful of chances and probably deserved to lose the game, but I still feel pretty awful for their players and fans. For 60 minutes, they were on the wrong end of a shameful display of blatantly poor officiating.
The Super Bowl should be the marquee night of the NFL. Their sport's championship game has become America's most popular single event. It's an opportunity for the NFL to showcase all of its excitement and drama for a huge international television audience. It should feature the best teams, best players, and the best officials. Unfortunately, the game itself is often boring. With some exceptions in recent years, the Super Bowl has probably gotten a bad reputation for being a lot of hype and not much actual sports drama. So when this year's game was boring, I was not completely shocked. However, I was shocked by the way that the officials seemed determined to obtrusively leave their inept mark on this most-important game.
It just felt like almost every play was micro-managed and over-analyzed by the referees. Football games can hinge on one crucial play or one crucial call. Because of this, I guess that I would prefer that the officials err on the side of silence. I always have been a proponent of instant replay, but that may have changed tonight. In the biggest game of the season, it seemed that instant replay was misused in every opportunity. Seemingly correct calls were reviewed and incorrect calls were not. Of the plays that were reviewed, those that ended up being wrong were not overturned and those that were right were inexplicably reversed. Bad calls and referee meddling continuously hampered the continuity and momentum of the game until one team was so visibly shaken that the final quarter became a forgone conclusion.
Certainly there should be rules and regulations on the field of play, but isn't football essentially organized chaos? In recent years, it seems that there have been too many new arbitrary rules governing contact. A player can have his spine broken in a "legal hit", but an almost imperceptible raise of the arm will result in a 45 yard penalty. This has stripped American football of its major advantage over soccer (as I see it). Soccer matches can be manipulated by dishonest and deceitful players (usually from Brazil) who embellish minor contact in order to gain free kicks or penalty shots. In a game where a one goal lead could be insurmountable, this behavior makes me sick. Now American football's rule changes are injecting a new culture of conniving, whining, ref-pleading cheats who attempt to make the most from any ambiguous offense. Another consequence of these rule changes is the over-analysis and intense scrutiny on each individual player by the referees. As I said before, the margin for victory in a football game is far too narrow to allow this to happen in the season's ultimate game.
Before I end this rare foray into sports, let me just mention one other thing that I found particularly ironic and that tainted this Super Bowl. The NFL tries to do everything it can to create a fair and even playing field. That's the official reason behind the continuous rule changes, salary caps, and a neutral location for the Super Bowl. But for all their attempts to promote a fair fight in this championship game, they somehow allow Pittsburgh fans to occupy 90% of the stadium's seating. So much for neutral locations.
Normally I wouldn't use this space for sports discussions, but I just wanted to congratulate the Pittsburgh Steelers on winning the lamest Super Bowl in history. I've got nothing against the Steelers. It's nice to see Jerome Bettis get a ring. He's a classy guy and he deserves to enjoy the view from atop the mountain. There are a lot of nice guys on the Steelers. Phil Cowher plays an incredibly boring and ugly brand of football, but he gets results. I also don't have any particular affinity for the Seahawks. They squandered a hatful of chances and probably deserved to lose the game, but I still feel pretty awful for their players and fans. For 60 minutes, they were on the wrong end of a shameful display of blatantly poor officiating.
The Super Bowl should be the marquee night of the NFL. Their sport's championship game has become America's most popular single event. It's an opportunity for the NFL to showcase all of its excitement and drama for a huge international television audience. It should feature the best teams, best players, and the best officials. Unfortunately, the game itself is often boring. With some exceptions in recent years, the Super Bowl has probably gotten a bad reputation for being a lot of hype and not much actual sports drama. So when this year's game was boring, I was not completely shocked. However, I was shocked by the way that the officials seemed determined to obtrusively leave their inept mark on this most-important game.
It just felt like almost every play was micro-managed and over-analyzed by the referees. Football games can hinge on one crucial play or one crucial call. Because of this, I guess that I would prefer that the officials err on the side of silence. I always have been a proponent of instant replay, but that may have changed tonight. In the biggest game of the season, it seemed that instant replay was misused in every opportunity. Seemingly correct calls were reviewed and incorrect calls were not. Of the plays that were reviewed, those that ended up being wrong were not overturned and those that were right were inexplicably reversed. Bad calls and referee meddling continuously hampered the continuity and momentum of the game until one team was so visibly shaken that the final quarter became a forgone conclusion.
Certainly there should be rules and regulations on the field of play, but isn't football essentially organized chaos? In recent years, it seems that there have been too many new arbitrary rules governing contact. A player can have his spine broken in a "legal hit", but an almost imperceptible raise of the arm will result in a 45 yard penalty. This has stripped American football of its major advantage over soccer (as I see it). Soccer matches can be manipulated by dishonest and deceitful players (usually from Brazil) who embellish minor contact in order to gain free kicks or penalty shots. In a game where a one goal lead could be insurmountable, this behavior makes me sick. Now American football's rule changes are injecting a new culture of conniving, whining, ref-pleading cheats who attempt to make the most from any ambiguous offense. Another consequence of these rule changes is the over-analysis and intense scrutiny on each individual player by the referees. As I said before, the margin for victory in a football game is far too narrow to allow this to happen in the season's ultimate game.
Before I end this rare foray into sports, let me just mention one other thing that I found particularly ironic and that tainted this Super Bowl. The NFL tries to do everything it can to create a fair and even playing field. That's the official reason behind the continuous rule changes, salary caps, and a neutral location for the Super Bowl. But for all their attempts to promote a fair fight in this championship game, they somehow allow Pittsburgh fans to occupy 90% of the stadium's seating. So much for neutral locations.
posted by adelino @ 10:50 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home