#221: Baseless Grudge

---SSL Broadcast #59---

Someone needs to give Seattle Seahawks fans something - anything - to complain about.

It doesn't help that prominent sports networks continue, six years later, to feed the fire that there was controversial officiating in Super Bowl XL. However, the words are the only kindling that truly keep the flames burning. There is no - and has never been any - substantive fuel.

Introducing Bill Leavy as the referee for Sunday's tilt at Heinz Field only serves as kerosene.

Leavy's presence should not matter one iota. The 2011 Seattle Seahawks are not a championship-caliber team, so any talk of a "rematch" are silly at best. The head coach in that Super Bowl is in the front office of a team on the other side of the country. Its starting quarterback is in Tennessee. Its star running back is no longer in the league. It's not even fair to say this year's Seattle team is a shell of its former self. It's much worse than that.

The reason that the officiating continues to be the focus of that game is that there really wasn't anything special about it. In the scope of championship games, it might be among the worst football has ever seen. Even in some of the blowouts in the 80s, at least ONE team was clearly superior. In the case of XL, neither played anywhere close to potential.

Here's a statement I encourage all readers (no matter when you come across this article) to repeat and spread:

Super Bowl XL was a poorly played game by both sides.

That's the only legitimate complaint that football fans everywhere should have with that game. The rest is as artificial as aspertame.

Bill Leavy owes no one anything tomorrow.

Seattle fans (and Steeler haters and the football-ignorant) owe the rest of us a break.


Also on the show:

- Post-mortem of Pittsburgh's blowout loss in Baltimore.

- Pirates lock up losing season #19 in a row.

- With all the attention on Pitt's transition on offense, the pourous defense is being ignored.







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