Holmgren rips refs at Seahawks' welcome home

[underpants]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs05/news/story?id=2321636

SEATTLE -- Despite the Seahawks' disappointing Super Bowl loss, thousands of Seattle fans showed up Monday at Qwest Field to welcome the players home and congratulate them on their season.

Coach Mike Holmgren told the homecoming crowd that some of the officials' calls from Sunday's 21-10 loss still rankled.

"We knew it was going to be tough going up against the Pittsburgh Steelers," Holmgren said. "I didn't know we were going to have to play the guys in the striped shirts as well."

The fans roared their agreement.

"Refs suck!" they shouted in unison.

The focus of the fans' rage, a day after their team

[timber84]

1. There were more fans at their "defeat rally" then were at the

game. A team that was so excited about going to the big game sure didn't have any fans there to show it was really incredible how few "hawks" fans actually showed up.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. 285.66 vs. 2386.20

Miles that is.

[HuckleB]

11. That and a little perspective on what's important in life, doesn't hurt.

[Ravenseye]

15. Pittsburgh as they say is a drinking town...

...with a football problem.

[HuckleB]

18. Cliches are fun.

Funny thing, though, Pittsburgh actually has a much wider spectrum of people with many interests than that cliche would indicate.

[Ravenseye]

14. Doesn't affect the cost of a ticket

People were taking out second mortages to get tickets for 1000, 2000, or 3000 dollars. Crazy stuff, but they were. What's the cost of a plane ticket to Detroit or someplace close enough to drive there if it saves you a few more bucks? Nothing compared to the cost of a ticket.

[timber84]

16. That's the excuse?

Just pathetic fan participation. I had no problem getting a plane ticket to go.

[HuckleB]

19. In other words, you are a sore winner.

That's sad.

[timber84]

20. Were you at the game?

Then you have absolutely no concept of what I'm talking about and for someone who talks a lot about not giving a shit about this you sure do spend enough time posting about it.

[HuckleB]

39. LOL!

In other words, you ran out of excuses for being a jerk!

LOL!

[blitzburgh55]

25. Super Bowl XXX

The majority of fans were Steeler fans. How far away is Dallas from Phoenix? How far is Pittsburgh from Phoenix?

[HuckleB]

41. You comparing Dallas to Seattle?

Them's fighting words!

And I rooted for the Steelers, er against Paul Allen.

[Dulcinea]

43. Well....

Pittsburgh is driving distance from Detroit. Seattle isn't.

Dulcinea
Steeler fan since 1974
not at the game :-(

[ProfessorGAC]

45. Um. Everything In The Contiguous 48 Is Within Driving Distance

It just takes a lot longer!
:evilgrin:
The Professor

[Captain Hilts]

2. The players themselves say they, not the refs, lost the game. nt

[qanda]

3. How completely classless!

[hasbro]

13. Between today's whining

And "letting" Terrel Davis score the winning td. Holgren has proven himself devoid of class in defeat.

[Redbear]

26. I think letting Davis score the TD was a smart, calculated gamble.

Denver had two cracks to punch it in from the one (and they had just run for 17 yards the play prior)which was about a 98% possibility and if they didn't get in, they would still take the lead on a field goal.



The issue was do you start a drive to tie the score with 1:39 and two timeouts left or do you start a drive to tie the score with 1:30 and no time outs left?

If GB had a better run defense or if the ball was on the 5 and not the 1, or if they didn't have Brett Favre in his prime it would be a different calculation, but under those very strange circumstances I agree with the call.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

36. Because a Steeler would NEVER question the calls...

:rofl:



Porter on refs: 'I felt they were cheating us'

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs05/news/story?id=2294214

[timber84]

4. Someone in Seattle has there head screwed on right.

very well said:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/258437_hawked.asp

[blitzburgh55]

5. Holmgren wants the Terrible Towel banned

What a sore loser. I used to like him, but have lost all respect for him. Seattle couldn't over come their mistakes. The Steelers did and the better team won. WOOHOO!

But Holmgren on Monday was candid about one aspect of Super Bowl XL: Pittsburgh’s conspicuous home-field advantage.

The Seahawks understood the hostile climate that awaited them in Ford Field. Days before kickoff, corporate tickets available to league business associates living in places like Dallas, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles suddenly showed up on eBay. Weighing a weekend trip to Detroit to watch the Seahawks and Steelers against making some easy money on an Internet auction, those tickets wound up in the hands of Steelers fans.

But it wasn’t until the pregame introduction of former Super Bowl MVP winners that the intensity of the Pittsburgh faction become fully evident. While most of the MVPs heard polite applause, Steelers’ icons Lynn Swann and Franco Harris were treated to a heroes’ welcome. Of the 68,206 fans on hand, it seemed as though 60,000 of them waved “Terrible Towels.”

Holmgren had more on his mind Sunday night than the emotional makeup of the audience. After the Seahawks’ 21-10 defeat, however, he talked with his grown children.

“They were pretty emotional – their father had lost a football game,” said Holmgren.

OK, coach, we’ll consider the source.

Their beef?

“Steelers towels were on sale at every souvenir stand in the stadium,” Holmgren said, noting that blue-and-green Seahawks towels were not available.

“That,” he said, “seems pretty unfair.”

The preponderance of Steelers fans in the house did not, at first, appear to faze the “visitors” at the neutral site. While quarterback Matt Hasselbeck worked the flanks of the Pittsburgh defense with a succession of precision, high-percentage passes, the Steelers were penalized for two false starts. (Pittsburgh was flagged only once thereafter.)

But the trappings of a road game took an eventual toll. There’s a human element in sports, even with pros competing on an elite level, and the human element insists it’s more difficult to win when the crowd is overwhelmingly against you.

“This is the first Super Bowl I’ve ever been a part of – as an assistant or a head coach – where one team had that many fans behind it,” said Holmgren.

Souvenir stands are something else: Either make rooting accoutrements available for fans of both teams, as Holmgren suggested, or ban such items as “Terrible Towels” altogether.


http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/seahawks/story/5509779p-4965313c.html

[blitzburgh55]

6. New Seahawk logo for next year

:evilgrin:

[timber84]

7. that's perfect

:rofl:

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

8. Everyone knows babies can't read the clock either.

The phrase for today is: Clock management

Sorry Seahawks but couldn't resist.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. One for the Dingleberry.

:evilgrin:

[HuckleB]

17. Sore winners are pitiful.

Funny thing, though, the loudest people on this issure aren't Seahawks fans, it's fans of the league.

[timber84]

21. Yeah you right.

[timber84]

22. To be fair:

[Ravenseye]

23. Hey it's my neighbor!

Seriously. I'm not kidding. Pants. Stubble.

[HuckleB]

37. Yeah, it's fairly true.

Of about ten percent of the population in the northwest.

Great toon, by the way. Passed it around all last week!

[blitzburgh55]

24. Well

I know Steelers fans are tired of hearing about the "bad calls" After what the Steelers accomplished this year to have their victory tainted by whiny fans and Steelers haters is ridiculous. If these whiners and haters would take the time to actually review the so called bad calls and read the NFL rules, they would be able to put it all to rest.

For every so called bad call against the Seahawks, I can find a very blatant call that would have helped the Steelers that was never called. The Seahawks were lucky to get the few penalties they did.

But anyway......WOOHOO!

[northzax]

27. all that needs saying, right here:

The Seahawks were lucky to get the few penalties they did

I just watched a TiVo of the game. There is holding, just as bad as that on over 2/3rds of the plays. I counted 19 Pittsburgh offensive plays that had equivalent holding. none were called.

anyway, it's a shame that the Steelers' victory was tainted by the poor referring.And I don't recall anyone calling me a Steeler-hater when I complained about the reffing in Indy. SAme difference. The reffs screwed up and made themselves the story.

[friesianrider]

28. I truly mean no offense, but you're not an NFL official...

...and it's a little silly to be making official "calls" that you think "should have been" based off what you saw on your TiVo.

It is seriously high time for everyone to take a deep breath, realize the game is over, the Steelers won, and take off their collective tinfoil hats. What you're suggesting is that the officials, in a coordinated and pre-planned effort, deliberately and repeatedly cheated in order to throw the world championship football game to favor Pittsburgh, in front of tens of millions of people all across the entire world.

Wow. Just...wow. I know DU is full of conspiracy theorists, but this is just ridiculous.

[northzax]

30. I have never suggested a conspiracy

in fact, I have consistently said that I don't think there was a conspiracy. It was just really, really bad reffing. And frankly, for the Superbowl, I expect better. I don't want to talk about the reffing on Monday morning, ever, but for two straight NFL weeks, that has been the story. First the Steeler-Indy game (where as I recall, it was all the Steeler people talking about it) and now the week after the Superbowl. that is simply unfortunate.

look, I'm not a doctor, but when every person I know who knows medicine tells me a doctor screwed up, I tend to believe them. I'm not a lawyer, but when all the lawyers I know tell me someone screwed up, I believe them. I don't have an MBA, but I can tell a bad businessman. And I'm not a ref, but I can tell when one calls a bad game. It doesn't have to be a conspiracy to simply admit that someone did a bad job. And the crew that reffed the Superbowl did a bad job. It's just unfortunate that almost every call appeared to favour one team over the other. Not intentional, simply incompetance.

Of course, if it was the other way round, the Steeler fans and players would simply accept that they lost and not talk about the reffing, right? like after the Indy game? that one they won, and it was still, bad call this, bad call that.

not to use your own words against you, but in This Post you agreed with Joey Porter saying that everyone wanted the Colts to win that game, was that also a "tin foil conspiracy theory"? or somehow different?

[friesianrider]

31. You really think the referees are that incompetant?

Maybe they are, I don't know. Me personally? I just don't buy it.

What happened is really quite simple so I'm really confused what all the hoopla and whining is about. There were a few questionable calls that could have easily gone either way. Some people say they should have gone way A, some people say it should have gone way B. In enforcing most of the rules of football, there are no absolutes and pretty much everything is up for debate.

There were also a few questionable calls that went in favor of Seattle (like what should have been a Hasselbeck fumble that the ref ruled he was down).

I agree that everyone wanted the Colts to win - I'm not sure what that has to do with a tinfoil conspiracy theory though. I don't think I ever accused the refs of intentionally attempting to tip the game in the Colt's favor, which is what a lot of DUers (not necessarily you) are pretty much suggesting. Maybe I did - I don't remember. I have to say though, I personally thought the calls in the Colts-Pitt game were MUCH worse than in the Super Bowl.

Nonetheless, the game is over. People really need to quit whining on the internet about it because it won't do any good. If they're pissed off about bad reffing as a whole, then I'd suggest they complain to the NFL where it will do some good.

[Ravenseye]

32. Yeah the bad calls were on both sides

There were a number of close calls, which people need to relax about. There were though a number of just bad calls, and they were pretty even. The Steven's 'non-fumble' incomplete pass, the Hasselback 'chopblock tackle'...

The touchdown, was a touchdown, the pass interference was a pass interference. By the way nobody has mentioned that the EXACT SAME CALL went against Heath Miller later in the game...complain about one, complain about both. That call pushed Pittsburgh back into a 3rd and 28 situation (which they overcame btw).

I'm not sure exactly why the meme became about how badly the officiating screwed Seattle, but that certainly was the initial jumping off point, but it seems more and more national sports writers are seeing through that 'need to get a story out immediately and this game was boring' haze.

Bad calls yes, but fairly balanced against both teams.

[friesianrider]

33. I completely agree.

Well said. :applause:

[northzax]

35. are you talking about the reviewed fumble?

that call went against Seattle, until the replay clearly showed that he was touched, therefore it wasn't a fumble, by rule. I can think of only one bad call that favoured Seattle, the Jerramy Stevens fumble that was ruled an incomplete pass. That was another bad call. just more evidence that the referees were simply not up to the task.

And I won't quit talking about it, if we let the bad performance go, the NFL will foist it on us again next year. The only way that something will happen to improve the refereeing of NFL games is public disgust, otherwise it will continue to degrade.

My point is that the people who should be complaining are the Steelers' fans. They won a Superbowl, and all anyone talked about the next day was not how well they played, or how much heart they showed, but how much the referees screwed up. In 6 months, no one will remember that Seattle lost this game (who did the Patriots beat three years ago, anyway?) but that this was the "Bad Ref Bowl" If I was a Steeler fan, I'd be writing a letter to the NFL saying "How dare your crappy refs cheapen our victory?" To work your entire life to achieve a goal and to have people who are supposed to be invisible get all the attention is really awful, don't you think?

Face it, the refs were the story. The Steelers didn't play particularly well, but they outplayed the Seahawks, and that should be enough. Unfortunately, the refs intervened, again. That is two straight Steeler games that the refs were the story, not the winning Steelers. how annoying for them.

[friesianrider]

44. I don't think the refs are the big story at all.

The only people still talking about it are here on DU. :eyes:

Obviously, one can and will think/do whatever they want. I just wish the whiners would STFU already - some people just aren't happy unless they have something controversial to harp on and bitch about.

The game is over, the Steelers won fair and square - move on.

[northzax]

47. sure thing

and George Bush won fair and square as well.

[friesianrider]

48. Alright well, I'll be the mature one and say we'll agree to disagree.

:eyes:

But I really hope some of you let it go and move on with your lives. Soon. It's getting old.

[HuckleB]

38. Unfortunately...

it's not "Steelers haters" or even Seahawks fans who've made a big deal of the calls, but everyday NFL fans of the middling type. In other words, you are yapping at the wrong crowds.

[qanda]

49. That's hilarious!

:spray:

[HuckleB]

12. He played the crowd.

He's a showman. No big surprise there.

[MrSlayer]

29. Good for him. He has every right.

They got robbed, what's he supposed to say?

[Baclava]

34. Holmgren is Maxim's 'Girl of the Day' ......hahahahahhah

Age: 57

Profession: Head tear-leader for the Seattle Seahawks

Weight: Two Space Needles

Speaking from the shart: Head walrus Mike Holmgren didn't see a Seahawks' loss in Super Bowl XL—he peered through his swollen eyelids and spotted a referee's conspiracy. "We knew it was going to be tough going up against the Pittsburgh Steelers," Holmgren told lost Starbucks customers who stumbled upon the loser's pep rally. "I didn't know we were going to have to play the guys in the striped shirts as well." We offered Holmgren some cheese with that whine, but he already had a mouth full of excuses instead.

[Redbear]

40. If Seattle had played the way they did all season they would have won

But that doesn't justify the attacks on Holmgren.

He hasn't said anything that several writers and the announcers and studio guys didn't say. Steve Young said the offensive pass interference negating the TD was ridiculous. Madden said there was no holding on the pass play to the 1. Michaels said the chopblock call on Hasselback was just flat wrong.

Holmgren says the same thing and he gets called a crybaby loser.

I know its upsetting to Steeler fans to see their championship tarnished and I am very sympathetic. Im a big Dallas Stars fan and I got sick of hearing "His toe was in the crease, NO Goal! Sabres were robbed!"

But in the the record book it shows the '99 Stanley Cup champs were from Dallas and Super Bowl XL was won by Pittsburgh.

Cowher deserved a championship more than anybody with the posible exception of Dungy. I'm glad he got one. He's a good guy and so is Mike Holmgren.

[HuckleB]

42. Exactly.

In context, he played to the crowd. It wasn't a big deal. I don't know why people are so bored as to obsess on things like this. Somebody needs to take these people to the library.

P.S. -- You may be the coolest Dallas fan I've ever run across!

:toast:

[friesianrider]

46. Ohhhh snap!

That is absolutely hilarious. I'm going to forward it!