Bad officiating robs Seahawks of the Lombardi Trophy

I'm a Falcons fan so some may perceive me as having an NFC bias, but I really was completely indifferent as to who would win Super Bowl XL though I would have liked to see a fair game. Instead, given its importance, it was the worst-officiated game I've ever seen in my life.

Seattle had two touchdowns negated by bad calls from the officials. I didn't expect any critical analysis from the wonder-twins, Al Michaels and John Madden, but they made several comments about the bad calls throughout the game. And then Steve Young at halftime said, "That was a touchdown," of the Darrell Jackson pass interference call. The traditional press' response was slow, but Michael Smith from ESPN.com and the Kansas City Star's Jason Whitlock addressed the officiating problems. Kudos go to The Miami Herald for carrying Whitlock's story. As a followup, I've since found these other stories related to the poor officiating:

• Michael Wilbon from The Washington Post
• Los Angeles Times had problems with the zebras
  
• Houston Chronicle
• Another story from The Washington Post
• San Jose Mercury News
• USA Today
  
• Sports Illustrated
• CBS Sportsline
• and another one from USA Today
• Chicago Sports Review
• The Arizona Republic
• Redskins' blog
• Courier News
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer
• Fox Sports
• and Fox Sports again

These blogs from The New Unit and radaractive also address the issue of bad officiating in this Super Bowl. One other bad call that hasn't been addressed happened in the 4th quarter when Roethlisberger called a time out after the play clock had expired and after the ball had been snapped... it was pretty blatant. Pittsburgh should have been charged with delay of game, but it was obvious who these officials wanted to win.