Like a lot of Americans and perhaps 0.05% of the rest of the world, I watched the Super Bowl this past Sunday. I was expecting a much better game than we got and I really felt if could have been if it weren't for well, penalties that resulted in really really good field positioning for one particular team that was in the Super Bowl.
There is an ongoing joke / complaint among football (of the American variety) fans that states that for reasons the no one really knows the answer to, Tom Brady always has the officials on his side and I'm not trying to say that this was what defined this particular Super Bowl, but it certainly helped the Bucs score at least 2 touchdowns.
Pass interference calls are a tough one to wrap your head around because the defender need only touch the potential receiver (in theory) and the call is warranted, but there was a couple of calls made late in the first half that really kind of set the tone for the rest of the game because when you go into the locker room nearly 20 points up at half-time, it is difficult for the other team to rally back against that.
There was a couple of calls in the second quarter that looked questionable in my book but the most egregious came when there was nearly no time left in the half and there was a pass made into the end zone where there surely was some contact / pass interference but honestly, no one is going to argue that this pass was catchable.
These two plays kind of defined the first half in my mind because neither one of these passes were catchable even if the defense wasn't there at all.
This sort of officiating irritates football fans all around the world (again, of the American football fan variety) because while it is definitely a penalty in the pure form, there really (IMO) be some consideration as to whether the pass was in any way catchable. In both of the clips presented above yes, there was a ball thrown and yes, there was a TINY bit of illegal contact that took place but with or without said contact that ball could not be caught by anyone and therefore (again IMO) these penalties are just horrible calls on the part of the officials.
People could argue that Andy (dia-beet-us) Reid should have challenged the calls but this is something that is rarely done defensively on the part of coaches these days.
Both of these calls resulted in massive gains for the Patrio.... i mean Buccaneers and gave them fantastic field positioning to go into the locker room at half-time with a huge lead.
I'm sorry to soccer (football) fans out there, but one of the main things that I enjoy about American football is the fact that diving and / or the impression of fouls for good field positioning has never really been part of the sport while it is really easy to argue that it is definitely part of soccer. But when you look at plays like this where one team gets to advance a massive amount of way down the field on questionable calls it starts to look like what we call "home cookin'"
These calls were bad calls in my book and perhaps Andy Reid (who is the head coach of the Chiefs by the way) should have contested. Neither one of these passes were catchable and while this does not excuse the contact made by the KC secondary I really don't think it is fair that in this Super Bowl, the penalties resulted in more yards gained than the team that was the recipient of them.
When these little yellow bastards are the reason why a particular team (regardless of the team) is making their way down the field and scoring touchdowns because of them, I think it takes away from the game as much as Ronaldo swinging his legs around waiting for some one to go for his legs so that he can fall on the ground. This is one of the things that I have until this Super Bowl always appreciated about American Football: It wasn't really left up to the officials.
But it certainly seemed that way in the first half of the most recent Super Bowl. There were 14 points scored because of just 2 of these calls, and when you consider that the 2nd quarter is where more of the Tampa Bay points were scored than any other quarter - I think it is at least worth looking at.
There are many reasons to believe that the Chiefs would have lost regardless of these penalties but I know that from where I was standing, it looked as though once again Tom Brady had the officials in his pocket.