Bill Leavy apologizes to Seahawks for Super Bowl XL

[Hasselbeck]

lol, Seahawk fans are bitter fucks.

Imagine sucking for your entire franchises history, finally putting together the best team in the NFL.. outplaying your opponent in the Super Bowl.. and every time you're close to breaking through and taking control of the biggest game ever in that franchises history, the momentum is killed due to bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. And now Seahawk fans are forever left to wonder just what could have happened had the game been called correctly. It wasn't a lock that we win, hell the Steelers could have come right back and put together a final drive similar to the one they pieced together against Arizona. But we will never know because of .. well.. complete and utter bullshit.

It just makes me laugh how people go "Let it go", "Move on" when if it happened to any other fan of the other 31 teams in the league - they'd be just as irate. Guaranteed. Doesn't matter if you have 5 championships or 0.

[West]

Yes we are bitter, but us devoted Seahawks fans waited our entire lives for that one game, and it was taken away from us due to undeniably bullshit calls over and over.

Can you really blame us for being upset?

[Senser81]

Imagine sucking for your entire franchises history, finally putting together the best team in the NFL.. outplaying your opponent in the Super Bowl.. and every time you're close to breaking through and taking control of the biggest game ever in that franchises history, the momentum is killed due to bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. And now Seahawk fans are forever left to wonder just what could have happened had the game been called correctly. It wasn't a lock that we win, hell the Steelers could have come right back and put together a final drive similar to the one they pieced together against Arizona. But we will never know because of .. well.. complete and utter bullshit.

It just makes me laugh how people go "Let it go", "Move on" when if it happened to any other fan of the other 31 teams in the league - they'd be just as irate. Guaranteed. Doesn't matter if you have 5 championships or 0.

I've been down this road before, but I've actually forgotten a lot about that Super Bowl. It wasn't very memorable. I remember the Steelers putting together a drive that scored a TD, I remember Roethlisberger throwing away another TD on an awful INT, and I remember the Steelers doing nothing in the 2nd half except for their two big plays (Parker's run, Randle-El to Ward). As for the Seahawks, they seemed to be able to move the ball within the 20's, but they never made any big plays and had a hard time scoring. I remember Stevens dropping a ton of passes (one of which would have setup an easy TD), and I remember Jackson dropping passes, too. I don't think either team played very well, as they both self-destructed during the game.

As for the officiating, the "clipping" call on Hasselbeck was unexplainable, but I don't think it had a big effect on the game. The holding call on Locklear had more of an impact, but I can understand the call because it APPEARED that Locklear dragged down the defender. The other call I remember is the offensive PI on Jackson which negated a TD, but IMO it was the right call.

In sum, move on.

[Rayman]

Imagine sucking for your entire franchises history, finally putting together the best team in the NFL.. outplaying your opponent in the Super Bowl.. and every time you're close to breaking through and taking control of the biggest game ever in that franchises history, the momentum is killed due to bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. And now Seahawk fans are forever left to wonder just what could have happened had the game been called correctly. It wasn't a lock that we win, hell the Steelers could have come right back and put together a final drive similar to the one they pieced together against Arizona. But we will never know because of .. well.. complete and utter bullshit.

It just makes me laugh how people go "Let it go", "Move on" when if it happened to any other fan of the other 31 teams in the league - they'd be just as irate. Guaranteed. Doesn't matter if you have 5 championships or 0.

Yeah, I felt that pain two years later.

Granted, it wasn't the Super Bowl, but it was the biggest game the team had had in nearly 10 years.

[biggamejrs]

Yes we are bitter, but us devoted Seahawks fans waited our entire lives for that one game, and it was taken away from us due to undeniably bullshit calls over and over.

Can you really blame us for being upset?

nope. I still hate Siragusa and the tuck rule.
Maybe if we ever get good again, it will fade away.

[Golden Taters]

Bullshit game.

[JoeCreed]

I agree with the Hawk fans. Being a Jets fan for 28 years, if I waited all this time and got ripped off because of officiating...I'd be beyond salty. Unreal.

I also live near Pittsburgh and have to hear all these clueless Steelers fans' mouths, so that doesn't help any either.

[Shayn•Da•Pain]

I've been down this road before, but I've actually forgotten a lot about that Super Bowl. It wasn't very memorable. I remember the Steelers putting together a drive that scored a TD, I remember Roethlisberger throwing away another TD on an awful INT, and I remember the Steelers doing nothing in the 2nd half except for their two big plays (Parker's run, Randle-El to Ward). As for the Seahawks, they seemed to be able to move the ball within the 20's, but they never made any big plays and had a hard time scoring. I remember Stevens dropping a ton of passes (one of which would have setup an easy TD), and I remember Jackson dropping passes, too. I don't think either team played very well, as they both self-destructed during the game.

As for the officiating, the "clipping" call on Hasselbeck was unexplainable, but I don't think it had a big effect on the game. The holding call on Locklear had more of an impact, but I can understand the call because it APPEARED that Locklear dragged down the defender. The other call I remember is the offensive PI on Jackson which negated a TD, but IMO it was the right call.

In sum, move on.

Exactly.

That "clipping" call as Senser put it even though I think it was ruled a low block actually, was strait bullshit. But it didn't matter to the game for two reasons. 1; It was a penalty on a play when Hasselbeck choked anyhow and 2; In the biggest game of Seahawk franchise history, on the most important drive in franchise history when Seattle had to come up with points, Hasselbeck made the biggest error in franchise history by throwing up an interception. I'd LOVE to give back 15 yards and take the ball at the 29 instead of the 44 just to shut Seahawk fans up. 4 plays later the entire Seahawks defense fucked up anyhow. I know the Seahawks D and coaching staff watched gamefilm. They had to have known the Steelers were going to run a trick play in the 4th at some point. So here comes Randle-El just moments after John Madden said something to the effect of "The Seahawks need to watch out for a trick play here because the Steelers have had success doing it". A play or two later and bam, screw-up city and the Pelicans allowed a 43 yard TD. In one of the two most important defensive stands in franchise history the Seahawks failed. On the ensuing kickoff the Seahawks fucked up again on what could have been the most important kickoff return in Franchise history when Josh Scobey could only get out to the 16 yardline giving them poor field position. Then the Seahawks came up lame again on the drive. Then on absolutely the most important defensive stand of the game and of course franchise history the Seahawks failed to stop Jerome Bettis and company from pounding the rock on 8 of 9 plays to run the clock down to under 2 minutes. I mean you see Jerome Bettis in the backfield, you're down 11 points, and you can't stop 8 runs and a simple 7 yard pass? The fuck if that's not a complete failure of a 4th quarter so far. Now with 1:51 on the clock Hasselbeck comes up short again going 4 of 10 and giving the ball back on the Steelers 23 yardline. I mean he needed two scores and he couldn't even get in once? So Seahawk fans, don't come up all high and mighty and act like the Seahawks did enough to win. We're talking about two plays out of 133 plays that game. Two plays, one of which was a complete screw-up by Hasselbeck throwing an INT, when 15 yards didn't matter BTW. One of those 133 plays was the Seahawks D screwing up again and allowing the longest running play in SB history to Parker. Constantly the Seahawks did more than the officials to shoot themselves in the foot that game.

133 plays, one obvious P.I. two feet in front of an official, D. Jackson failing to get two feet down in bounds to give up a TD, Eight Seahawk drives that barely crossed the 50 yardline, and somehow the big reason they lost was because of two fourth quarter "kicked" penalties. The only two penalties in the 4th were the ticky-tack Hasselbeck block, and a holding call that Leavy actually got correct! Evidence by the big eye in the sky, yes I brought video. Furthermore Leavy's boss Mike Pereira even said he got the call correct.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcTm9PPdT3I&feature=related]YouTube - Haggans Held[/ame]

Mike Pereira: Bill Leavy didn't hand the Steelers the Super Bowl
Posted by Michael David Smith on August 10, 2010 7:17 AM ET
Bill Leavy, the referee at Super Bowl XL, apologized to the Seahawks last week for mistakes that helped the Steelers.

But Mike Pereira, the former head of officiating who was Leavy's boss at the time, insists that Leavy isn't the reason the Steelers won the Super Bowl.

"Did Leavy's calls determine the winner of Super Bowl XL? Absolutely not!" Pereira writes at FoxSports.com. "In truth, there were missed calls that went against both teams. Let's all put aside our allegiances and go back four years and look at the game objectively. If we do, we will see that the Seahawks did not play well and neither, actually, did the Steelers."

Pereira goes on to write that "The officials also did not have a great game," but he thinks Leavy is actually wrong about one of the "kicked calls" he owned up to. Leavy regrets flagging offensive tackle Sean Locklear for a holding penalty that negated a big play for the Seahawks, but Pereira says Leavy actually got that call right.

Ultimately, two things stand out from Pereira's perspective: "Bill is one of the best referees we have in the NFL," Pereira writes, and "the team that deserved to win won."

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/08/10/mike-pereira-bill-leavy-didnt-hand-the-steelers-the-super-bowl/

To sum it all up, quit crying and move on.

[Aso]

IIRC Haggans should've been called offsides on that holding call, which is the reason the holding took place.

[Shayn•Da•Pain]

IIRC Haggans should've been called offsides on that holding call, which is the reason the holding took place.

I don't think you do recall correctly. Haggans and Hampton both anticipated the snap count as you can see in the vid below. Haggans got a perfect jump on that one.