[mikesears]

I've tried to stay out of the arguments about the officiating. When you wrestle with pigs .......

I don't feel that I can be silent any longer.

It has often been said that even average officials can look good when a game is played by two great teams. But even a great official can look terrible when the game is played by two poor teams. Frankly, this superbowl was played by two poorly prepared teams. All of the dropped passes, the missed assignments, the terrible clock management, etc.

The officiating was fine. Nearly every forum I have visited has new members or annonymous posters who want to bash the officiating. Some of them even claim to be fellow officials with extensive experience. (It's funny how they all come out of the woodwork after a big game).

I don't see what all the commotion is about. Even on the night of the Super Bowl, I thought the officiating was pretty good. My belief is further validated because many of the regulars that I have come to respect think that the officiating was pretty good too. Some may claim that we are just sticking together because we are officials. BOLOGNA! If you have frequented this forum often, you will know that we aren't afraid to discuss the SPECIFICS of what we felt could have been done better. There are examples of plays from the Super Bowl scatterd about on the forum. (i.e. the mechanics of the dead ball then touchtown signal, the illegal block below the waist call).

To those of you who are generalizing about how poor the officiating was, come up with some specific examples. Otherwise your post will have little meaning and sound like sour grapes (no matter how you attempt to clarify yourselves).

To the guys in stripes who worked the Super Bowl, I say KUDOS for a job well done. To the NFL, I would encourage you to ignore the rantings of the TV personalities and the fans. The game officials did a fine job.