NFL Refs Admit, “Steelers Got Hosed”

Thanks for nothing, asshole.

Yesterday, at the NFL’s annual Spring Owners Meeting/Wet T-shirt contest down in sunny Palm Beach, the NFL’s head of officiating, Mike Pereira, conceded that, yes, perhaps there was a wee bit of holding on the play that ended the Steelers season in heart breaking fashion. Gee, ya think? Considering Jacksonville Jaguar quarterback David Garrard has the fleet-footed nimbleness of a rampaging bull elephant, I’m shocked to find out his Kordell-esque escape was aided and abetted by shenanigans along the offensive line.

So thanks, Captain Obvious. Thanks for acknowledging what everyone but the guys on the field standing FOUR FEET AWAY from the action saw. I understand professional football is a game of furious action and calls get missed so maybe nobody saw the one hold. Or the second hold. But, really, shouldn’t somebody have seen the third one? How many mulligans were they allowed on that play? Just give me an over/under here.

And while you’re in an apologetic mood, you should also admit they blew about 27 other holding calls as linebacker James Harrison had Jaguar players hanging around his neck and dragging him down like they were married all game. But thanks for the apology, Mike. I always enjoy hearing refs say three months after the fact, “Hey, we blew the call on the play which kiboshed all your playoff hopes and all your playoff dreams. Our bad.”

You know, is it just me or do the NFL refs apologize to us for blown calls an awful lot? I remember they apologized during the Super Bowl run when they blew the call on the Polamalu-intereption-that-wasn’t in the Indy game. They apologized for that stupid motion penalty that cost us the Atlanta game during Bill Cowher’s last season. Every year it seems like they’re apologizing.

Which is odd because if you ever peruse general football forums, there is a crazy perception that the refs always favor the Steelers. This asinine theory seemed to pick up steam after Super Bowl XXL when sad-sack Seattle fans couldn’t come to grips with the fact their team lost. Now, over two years later, the Seapigeon faithful continue to favor us with their bird droppings of “wisdom” by pounding their hairless, sunken, Emo chests and crying about the way they were screwed in the big game. They even resorted to spitting in the food of people who dared to wear Steeler jerseys, as if it’s a crime for wanting to associate oneself with a winner.

Of course, the fact that if the Pigeons were really the uncrowned champs, why didn’t they, oh say, accomplish something in the playoffs the last two years seems to escape their caffeine-addled brains. But by all means, continue to bitch and moan about a couple questionable calls like your team is the only one that’s ever had some bad officiating go against you. And by all means, continue to spread the misconception that the Steelers are the NFL’s chosen ones, mysteriously given the benefit of questionable calls or disputed penalties because the league “wants Pittsburgh to win.”

We don’t mind. Really we don’t. Because unlike your lone brush with greatness, those of us here in Steeler Nation are secure enough to know if we lost an important game, we’ll win another. If we get hosed in the playoffs, we’ll try again next year. If we blow a Super Bowl, we’ll eventually win another. Hell, we’ve even forgiven Phil Luckett.

Mostly.