Jim Zorn comments on Super Bowl XL*

[253hawk]

Madden (former OL himself) said right away during the replay that he didn't see how it was a hold. And Haggans was totally offsides on the play anyway, which is the only reason he was ahead of Locklear by that half-step. Worst case, it should have been 1st and 5 from the Stealer 14. Instead, it turned out to be a 14 point swing. That was our longest drive of the game by far, when we were finally building some momentum, and it was destroyed by whatever the hell that call was. Should have been up 17-14 with 10 mins to go. Or 21-14 if you factor in that lame push-off call.

 

[irocdave]

Nice to see Zorn go on record with this. I got the chance to meet him in person last fall and he had no qualms about saying the Hawks got screwed by the refs in their first SB. I posted the experience here, just to lazy to go find it now. There is no doubt in my mind our Hawks got the NFL shaft in what should have been the first Lombardi in Seattle. That Stealers D was as soft as the Hawks and the rapist was pathetic.

 

[JustTheTip]

The weak holding call on Locklear when it looked like the guy was clearly offside is the one that has always bugged me. We completed a pass to the 1 yard line on that play. Next play was the interception. That was pretty much the difference in the game right there.

The offensive PI on Jackson that took away a touchdown was a pretty big deal too.

Not only was the player Locklear got called for holding offsides, but the NT was clearly lined up offsides. The blatantly crooked officiating on that play and the following play are what determined the outcome of Super Bowl XL.

It wasn't the NT it was the DE and he jumped off sides well before the snap

My brother inlaw was at the game and had what he said was the perfect view of the snap, the DE clearly jumped offsides and the official immediately (and instinctively)m threw the flag. He said they jumped up and cheered knowing it was a free play. The problem is they then called holding.

Here was the real problem according to him. The flag came out so fast it couldn't have been for anything other than off sides. It was right at or after the snap and before Locklear could have possibly been anywhere other than right in front of the DE. Unles of course the official was predicting a holding call.

Probably the biggest frustration for me is that the replay doesn't show the official who threw the flag and apparently the all22 for that game doesn't have a camera view that shows it. At least nothing I have seen. Seems pretty simple really. If that flag really came out that fast then how could he be calling anything other than off sides. Is there a reason that the review of the flag cannot be found?

Reread what I typed. I said both were offsides. The NT was lined up offsides for a good 5 seconds before the snap. His entire hand was on the Seahawk's side of the ball.

 

[purpleneer]

One big blatant one was a missed hold by the center on the 3rd down draw right before their 75-yard TD.

 

[baumer64]

Alexander was blatantly horse collared on that possession before the interception. I don't know why that is never mentioned. Still has to be the most one sided officiated game in league history, and it was the Super Bowl! Totally robbed

Horse collar was not a penalty until two season after that SB I believe.

Still was a horribly officiated game and yes, I felt very violated as did all other Seahawk fans after the game.

 

[crucifyd]

Horse collar was not a penalty until two season after that SB I believe.

per wikipedia, with a bit of maybe pertinent info underlined, that was the first year of the penalty:

The horse-collar tackle rose to infamy during the 2004 NFL season, in which it was implicated in six major injuries, four of which were caused by Williams, including two in one game. The injuries that season included broken legs for Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens, Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, Baltimore Ravens running back Musa Smith, and Tennessee Titans wide out Tyrone Calico. On May 23, 2005, NFL owners voted 27–5 to ban the tackle, with the Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, and San Francisco 49ers voting against.[1] The first year of the ban, only two penalties were called by referees for the horse-collar tackle. Owners voted 25–7 in 2006 to expand the rule to include tackles by the back of the jersey in addition to tackles by the shoulder pads.[2]

 

[jlwaters1]

I would love to know which 7 the league agreed with.

I think 3 or 4 are pretty obvious. Illegal block by Hasselbeck on a tackle being one!

If I remember right, that call was preceded by a holding call on Locklear that negated a TD pass to Stevens. If memory serves, Hass threw a pick following that aborted TD. The Locklear call was one of the worst and would have had to have made Zorn's list. That sequence was a turning point in the game.

It wasn't a TD he caught it inside the 5 yard line. But everything else is correct. Locklear was called for holding when it appeared the DE was offsides (pretty clear). The next play was the INT that Matt got the insane penalty trying to make a tackle. That game really sucked, but it doesn't sting that much with the recent SB win. Last year's SB loss hurt a ton more IMO.

 

[RiverDog]

I would love to know which 7 the league agreed with.

I think 3 or 4 are pretty obvious. Illegal block by Hasselbeck on a tackle being one!

If I remember right, that call was preceded by a holding call on Locklear that negated a TD pass to Stevens. If memory serves, Hass threw a pick following that aborted TD. The Locklear call was one of the worst and would have had to have made Zorn's list. That sequence was a turning point in the game.

It wasn't a TD he caught it inside the 5 yard line. But everything else is correct. Locklear was called for holding when it appeared the DE was offsides (pretty clear). The next play was the INT that Matt got the insane penalty trying to make a tackle. That game really sucked, but it doesn't sting that much with the recent SB win. Last year's SB loss hurt a ton more IMO.

Yea, I think you're right about the pass to Stevens. I knew it was a big play that got called back. We had a heckuva red zone efficiency that year and it's reasonable to think that we would have punched it in.

As far as that loss sticking with me, I didn't get as hung up on the officiating nearly as much as some of my Seahawk brethren did. Yes, it was a horrible job, one of the worst in big game sporting history. But it's unreasonable to expect for all those calls to have gone our way, and after all, we did lose by two scores, meaning that there wasn't a single call to hang our hats on, such as there was with Don Denkinger's blown call in the World Series. And there were a lot of other factors that the officiating had very little if anything to do with the outcome...such as Josh Brown missing two makeable FG's in a dome that had me made them, would have made it a one score game and changed the character of the 4th quarter. It wasn't the refs that made Mike Holmgren phuck up his game management of the last 2 minutes of the first half, either. Sometimes our rage about the officiating causes us to overlook some of the missed opportunities we had complete control over.

SB 49 was far more devastating to me personally, because we definitely snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory. I still haven't gotten over that one.

 

[Jerhawk]

Thanks for sharing the article.

Part of me wants to think I should've gotten over this game years ago. Winning 48 helped, beating the steelers last season helped. But I don't think I'll ever totally forgive or forget that game.

A complete embarrassment to the league imo. Everybody, including some of steeler nation agreed that game was poorly officiated

 

[soohawk]

this still pisses me off anytime i think about it. winning one was great but losing both in the ways we did SUCKS

 

[RichNhansom]

I would love to know which 7 the league agreed with.

I think 3 or 4 are pretty obvious. Illegal block by Hasselbeck on a tackle being one!

If I remember right, that call was preceded by a holding call on Locklear that negated a TD pass to Stevens. If memory serves, Hass threw a pick following that aborted TD. The Locklear call was one of the worst and would have had to have made Zorn's list. That sequence was a turning point in the game.

It wasn't a TD he caught it inside the 5 yard line. But everything else is correct. Locklear was called for holding when it appeared the DE was offsides (pretty clear). The next play was the INT that Matt got the insane penalty trying to make a tackle. That game really sucked, but it doesn't sting that much with the recent SB win. Last year's SB loss hurt a ton more IMO.

Yea, I think you're right about the pass to Stevens. I knew it was a big play that got called back. We had a heckuva red zone efficiency that year and it's reasonable to think that we would have punched it in.

As far as that loss sticking with me, I didn't get as hung up on the officiating nearly as much as some of my Seahawk brethren did. Yes, it was a horrible job, one of the worst in big game sporting history. But it's unreasonable to expect for all those calls to have gone our way, and after all, we did lose by two scores, meaning that there wasn't a single call to hang our hats on, such as there was with Don Denkinger's blown call in the World Series. And there were a lot of other factors that the officiating had very little if anything to do with the outcome...such as Josh Brown missing two makeable FG's in a dome that had me made them, would have made it a one score game and changed the character of the 4th quarter. It wasn't the refs that made Mike Holmgren phuck up his game management of the last 2 minutes of the first half, either. Sometimes our rage about the officiating causes us to overlook some of the missed opportunities we had complete control over.

SB 49 was far more devastating to me personally, because we definitely snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory. I still haven't gotten over that one.[/quote]

I don't really understand how 49 could be worse unless you just weren't that invested in 05.

No there wasn't a single call but there were way to many that took away momentum and forced us to play into a situation we (and I don't think any team) knew how to handle. Every big play was met with a flag, every game changing situation was yanked away and for repeatedly false reasons.

It is real easy to sit here and say well we didn't do enough but that pretty much ignores how the game actually works. These aren't robots or video game pieces, they are actual humans with real emotions. Those same emotions that willed them to overcome adversity all season long to earn the #1 seed. They put their hearts and bodies on the line with every snap and they did it because they believed there was an end to the means.

The previous game against the Panthers many pundits predicted the red hot Panthers would come into our house and beat us. The first series of the Game Alexander went out with an injury and the first quarter looked like a battle of wills that towards the end we started to get control and with that control came momentum and following that momentum was an demoralization of the Panthers but it didn't happen in the first 30 seconds. It took time to develop. Time for the Seahawks to see some success and believe they were capable of controlling the game as well as time for doubt and fatigue to creep into the Panthers physique but once that happened the blow out was full go.

Super bowl XL was not about us not being able to get momentum on the field. We did that in every way possible. Shutting down the Steelers offence for zero first downs until mid way through the second quarter, moving the ball at will up and down the field and even scoring TDs and even our ST's was dominating with a huge run back all the way into Steelers territory that was again called back by a mysterious black in the back that was never shown on replay. That game showed a monster we had never seen before (no team had) in that the officials called back every single big play we had and there were many and none were with calls that would normally be called in other games.

Keep in mind we were the least penalized team in the league all year in 2005 yet suddenly we couldn't breath without drawing a flag.

I believe that Pete got our guys to believe in 2013 that we have already been robbed once and the only way to prevent it from happening again is to stomp on their throats from the first snap and never let the officials have a chance to steal it away from us.

The flags in that game pretty much say it all. The Steelers were flagged three times early in the game when it looked competitive and then never again. Not only no flags but ignoring to many things to count including multiple clock violations that were never called. From the point it was obvious we were able to move the ball on them and they weren't the officiating became grossly one sided.

To me 49 is pretty much chump change compared to 40. We already just won one and this game was decided by the teams on the field.

If your over super bowl 40, good for you but to me 40 will always be the worst case scenario because since 1976 as a Seahawks fan finally getting to the pinnacle of what you have worked for your entire history only to have the officials give your trophy to a less deserving team because they were more popular? No, just no. They may as well have given the damn trophy to the officials.

 

[RiverDog]

I don't really understand how 49 could be worse unless you just weren't that invested in 05.

No there wasn't a single call but there were way to many that took away momentum and forced us to play into a situation we (and I don't think any team) knew how to handle. Every big play was met with a flag, every game changing situation was yanked away and for repeatedly false reasons.

It is real easy to sit here and say well we didn't do enough but that pretty much ignores how the game actually works. These aren't robots or video game pieces, they are actual humans with real emotions. Those same emotions that willed them to overcome adversity all season long to earn the #1 seed. They put their hearts and bodies on the line with every snap and they did it because they believed there was an end to the means.

The previous game against the Panthers many pundits predicted the red hot Panthers would come into our house and beat us. The first series of the Game Alexander went out with an injury and the first quarter looked like a battle of wills that towards the end we started to get control and with that control came momentum and following that momentum was an demoralization of the Panthers but it didn't happen in the first 30 seconds. It took time to develop. Time for the Seahawks to see some success and believe they were capable of controlling the game as well as time for doubt and fatigue to creep into the Panthers physique but once that happened the blow out was full go.

Super bowl XL was not about us not being able to get momentum on the field. We did that in every way possible. Shutting down the Steelers offence for zero first downs until mid way through the second quarter, moving the ball at will up and down the field and even scoring TDs and even our ST's was dominating with a huge run back all the way into Steelers territory that was again called back by a mysterious black in the back that was never shown on replay. That game showed a monster we had never seen before (no team had) in that the officials called back every single big play we had and there were many and none were with calls that would normally be called in other games.

Keep in mind we were the least penalized team in the league all year in 2005 yet suddenly we couldn't breath without drawing a flag.

I believe that Pete got our guys to believe in 2013 that we have already been robbed once and the only way to prevent it from happening again is to stomp on their throats from the first snap and never let the officials have a chance to steal it away from us.

The flags in that game pretty much say it all. The Steelers were flagged three times early in the game when it looked competitive and then never again. Not only no flags but ignoring to many things to count including multiple clock violations that were never called. From the point it was obvious we were able to move the ball on them and they weren't the officiating became grossly one sided.

To me 49 is pretty much chump change compared to 40. We already just won one and this game was decided by the teams on the field.

If your over super bowl 40, good for you but to me 40 will always be the worst case scenario because since 1976 as a Seahawks fan finally getting to the pinnacle of what you have worked for your entire history only to have the officials give your trophy to a less deserving team because they were more popular? No, just no. They may as well have given the damn trophy to the officials.

I wasn't asking that anyone understand my sentiments let alone agree with them. I'm simply expressing my opinion and my feelings on the matter. We couldn't control the refs in SB 40, much like one can't control the weather. But we could control the deciding factors in SB 49, and we screwed it up. That's what made 49 more deavasting than XL, at least to me.

 

[Sports Hernia]

One big blatant one was a missed hold by the center on the 3rd down draw right before their 75-yard TD.

Yep, every one of Pissburgh's TD that game there was a blantant missed call. There used to be a website with some great pictures about that game and how piss poor the officiating was.

 

[morgulon1]

The weak holding call on Locklear when it looked like the guy was clearly offside is the one that has always bugged me. We completed a pass to the 1 yard line on that play. Next play was the interception. That was pretty much the difference in the game right there.

The offensive PI on Jackson that took away a touchdown was a pretty big deal too.

So take away (2) touchdowns in effect? Then we stop them cold on the goal line, the refs give them the touchdown . Next we challenge the call because the rapist was obviously short of the line to gain and the refs STILL give them the points.

Without any other bad officiating considered, that is a 21 point swing in pissburgh's favor. What was the final score?

Please tell me how that game wasn't fixed by the mafia or NFL?

 

[ZornLargentPatera]

I know some will say I'm crazy, but I've always believed, and still believe to this day, that those officials were instructed, whenever possible to give the benefit of doubt to the Stealers. The NFL knew Pittsburgh had a much bigger fan base, that Jerome Butthead or WTFever his name was, was retiring, and they wanted that story line to play out. No, I don't think they would fix a game, but I do not put it above Tagliabue, or Mr "Good"ell, to try and sway things with officiating

An outfit called DAW Marketing was employed by the league in the immediate aftermath of Super Bowl XL to undertake a survey exploring public reaction to the officiating in the game. I kept trying to followup with them through 2006 to get a hold of the results of their survey, but never did see the final product. To my knowledge it still hasn't been published anywhere publicly. I'm sure the results were quite damning, and so the report was therefore buried.

But Tagliabue retired, and the league for the first time ever completely revamped the fundamental look of the officials' uniforms during that offseason. But I'm sure those things are just coincidental.

Btw the horsecollar penalty was instituted during the offseason following the 2004 season due to a DB from the Cowboys breaking T.O.'s leg using horsecollar tackle that season. So, it was on the books for the entire 2005 season, including Super Bowl XL. The officials quite intentionally ignored Joey Porter's intentional horse collar tackle on Shaun Alexander.

 

[pmedic920]

It's nice to hear someone on that staff speak out about this. It also shows how cowardly the NFL is as this should have been made public.

I’m not going to repeat his name here but I’ve posted pictures of the event.

I got to have a 15-20 minute conversation with a player from that team and he told me that players from all over the league know that Seattle got shafted, even some players from that Steelers team.

I asked some very specific questions and got some very candid answers.

I’m convinced that the SB 40 situation wasn’t just a matter of a few bad/missed calls.
It was by design, and I’m surprised that it’s never blown up and we just get labeled as disgruntled.

Maybe someday in the future it will all come to light.

 

[CallMeADawg]

Cool discussion, seven years ago.

 

[cymatica]

Can't remember if it was a TD, but Ward caught a long pass after pulling the Seahawks DB down by the facemask. You could tell it was intentional.

 

[LeveeBreak]

The DJack TD overturned for a supposed push off that couldn't have tipped a toddler over foreshadowed the rest of the game. Opening drive, right down the field and poof...BS officiating set the stage. The Bus in Detroit was the fairytale ending the NFL wanted to see.

I remember Cower wandering around after the game saying "Where's Mike". Sorry William, Mike didn't enjoy the Aunt Jemima treatment so he didn't stick around to shake hands.

 

[oldhawkfan]

Just when I thought I was getting over it…this thread comes up and I’m pissed off all over again.