No-Calls: "Let the players decide the game" instead of the refs?

I was rooting for the Ratbirds...not because I like them (because they are one of my most hated teams), but because I hate the 49ers more and didn't want them to get 6 Lombardi Trophies with zero losses. Their fans were major a-holes last year when the lights went out at Candlestick, and their coach (and some players) are bigger crybabies than Holmgren. I live in CA and the Raider fans are better than the 49er fans if you can believe it (well, the Los Angeles Raider fans are worse...stupid gang-bangers). If the lights didn't go out at the SB, the 49ers were on their way to being blown out. Heck, I had to root for the Ratbirds over the Cheatriots in the AFC Championship game.

Anyway, there were several non-calls during that game, but the refs were pretty consistent with them. They let them play the game and let them get away with some stuff on both sides.
Sorry, but Crabtree is well-known for his run directly at the DB and cut away with a push-off. He did this on the final play and Smith held on to him as he pushed off. The action within the first 5 yards was all fair game. This means that technically, they both committed penalties. The officials were letting that stuff go on both sides. We know that the corners on both teams are the "weakness" in their defenses.

Crabtree was classy in his response because he understands that everybody bends the rules as much as they can to get an advantage. They both did it and his team lost in that instance. There was no way an official could call P.I. on one player or the other...it would have had to be on both players.

 

Well, you can laugh all you want, but some of aren't defending the Ravens. We are defending the officiating and criticizing the incessant "complaining about the refs" that has become too commonplace amongst NFL fans. Based on some of the posts in this thread, I conclude that posters believe that bad calls or noncalls can alter a Super Bowl and hand one team the title over another. Well, if this were the case...

1. Forget the Super Bowl IX title...the Vikings and their fans have always believed the Steelers caught a huge break when Larry Brown's fourth-quarter catch and fumble was ruled down.

2. Forget the Super Bowl X title...Lambert should have bneen kicked out of the game for assaulting Cliff Harris.

3. Forget the Super Bowl XIII title...the PI call against Benny Barnes was perhaps bogus.

4. Forget the Super Bowl XIV title...The Steelers got in the game in part because of the Mike Renfro TD reception being ruled incomplete.

5. Forget the Super Bowl XL title...no need to rehash why.

6. Forget the Super Bowl XLIII title...Santonio's celebration should have cost the Steelers 15 yards.

 

I'm not defending the Ravens. I am defending the integrity of the sport. As for the examples: I am NOT saying ANY of these are legitimate. Because they're NOT. Those situations DID NOT determine the Steelers' titles. Likewise, officiating did NOT determine the outcome of this year's Super Bowl. That's the point I am trying to make. Bottom line: as Steelers fans, we don't like the "refs gave it to you" argument that we often hear, so why are some on the boards turning around and using that same argument? I have always found Mike Holmgren's post-Super Bowl XL behavior to be reprehensible and classless. Well, Jim harbaugh is rivaling him. Neither coach was capable of looking at his team's failures, and perhaps his own coaching failures, and instead attacked the officials. It's cowardly. It's