Big Lead Sports Bar

8/07/2010

Bill Leavy Re-Opens Super Bowl XL Controversy



On a Pittsburgh-centric football weekend in Canton, Ohio, what is leading the local Saturday football headlines? Something that happened in 2006.

Referee Bill Leavy, apparently anxious to solidify his spot among the Don Denkingers and Jim Joyces of the world, decided a recent trip to Seattle's training camp would be a good time to relieve a burden that he's been carrying since February 5, 2006.
"It was a tough thing for me. I kicked two calls in the fourth quarter and I impacted the game, and as an official you never want to do that," said the veteran of 15 NFL seasons and two Super Bowls.

"It left me with a lot of sleepless nights, and I think about it constantly," Leavy said of the game in February 2006. "I'll go to my grave wishing that I'd been better."
Naturally, Seattle fans are using this as a validation that they were robbed of a championship, but as I've said all along, they're letting their own team's lousy play that day totally off the hook by blaming Leavy and Leavy alone.
Look, bad calls happen in the postseason, and if your team is good enough, they can overcome them. As an illustration, look back to the 2006 playoff game against the Colts, when Troy Polamalu clearly intercepted Peyton Manning but the call was overturned. A horrible call, yes, but the Steelers ultimately were able to overcome it in the end. 

Less-intelligent fans point to the Steelers getting favorable calls over the years merely because of who they are, but I can't even begin to count the amount of apologies the team received from the league for blown calls during the Bill Cowher Era. And if you really want to get into it, pull up the 2001 AFC Championship against New England, when the officials had so many incorrect calls overturned that Cowher literally ran out of challenges and couldn't do anything to get their future botched calls in the game corrected.

Did Bill Leavy allow a 75-yard touchdown run to Willie Parker? Did Bill Leavy allow a 43-yard touchdown pass to Antwaan Randle-El? I didn't think so. It's high time Seattle accepted their team's weak showing in the game and stopped pointing to the zebras. Unfortunately, Leavy did nothing but rip the scab of off that wound for Seahawk fans.

While his act of soul-cleansing was therapeutic for his own good, I'm not sure who else exactly was helped by this. Seahawk fans certainly aren't happy with the revelation, and Steeler fans are bristling at claims that their championship is tainted. But as long as Bill Leavy can sleep better at night, I guess that's all that matters.

6 comments:

Louis Lipps is my homeboy said...

Annnnnnnnd nobody outside of of Seattle cares...

Unknown said...

The 43-yard TD pass was THROWN by Randle-El TO Hines Ward.

jmarinara said...

What two calls? The only call I remember think was clearly a bad call against Seattle was the late hit call on their quarterback on the interception return.

By the way, no one ever points to the interception as a reason for losing. While Randle-el to Ward was glamorous and back breaking, the interception was the game.

JW said...

There was a very questionable holding call on one of our blitzing linebackers (Haggans?) right before that interception. But seriously, if people are going to start nitpicking holding calls -- which could easily be called on every play -- then I think they're grasping at straws.

(What about the hold that wasn't called at the end of our home playoff loss versus Jacksonville?!?! Huh??!?!?)

HomeRunFromBehindTheMeatballs said...

Good call Sean!

If we're gonna start questioning holding calls & "what might have been"... let's just get out the tape of EVERY SINGLE james harrison blitz in the last two seasons!

Blah blah blah... bill leavy talked in this article about "owning up" to his responsibilities... maybe it's just me, but "owning up" doesn't mean waiting 5 yrs to talk about it on a yahoo! sports blog.

@JW - oh you mean that insanely obvious call with under 2 minutes left that removed any glimmer of hope from us yinzers? ...yeah... i think we all just threw up in our mouths a lil.

Steve said...

I just want to know how a two-faced pansy like Leavy has the balls to walk back on the field and officiate after statements like that.

Starks said it best with: "He should go ahead and retire if he feels so bad about it. Just do us all a favor and not referee anymore."

Here's hoping Leavy's "grave" comes sooner than later. What an ass hat he is.