Heart-stopper

You had to know I was going to talk about this

But, of course, those who know me know I will not discuss next week's game against the Denver Broncos because of superstition. I'm superstitious. Please leave it at that.

Alright, back to last Sunday and the Steelers' huge win over Indy. Jerome Bettis' fumble in the final minute of the game, was one of the most gut-wrenching moments of my life as a sports fan.

Check, the most gut-wrenching moment ever.

Anyone who dislikes Jerome Bettis, I don't know what to say to you. One of the hardest-working and classiest players in the NFL for the past decade-plus, Bettis is everything you'd want an athlete to be. At the slipt second of the fumble — and the ensuing stoppage of all time and existence that occured during that play — my thoughts were more towards Bettis and the thought that that fumble could end up being the last play of his career. I said last week that unequivocally Jerome Bettis has become my favourite athlete of all time. He's surpassed Magic Johnson, but just barely. So when that play happened I swear to you that I was thinking more about him and that play being his last then "oh God we're going to lose this game." (Although that happened to cross my mind too). I felt like I was going to cry.

That said, I think this guy and me would get along.

Obviously I couldn't get enough of highlight packages all through Sunday evening. I wanted to watch the highlights over and over again, and I did. But the thing that happens when you have a wild finish like that (think Nebraska v. Michigan, Dec. 28/2005), is that the focus tends to shift to the final crazy moments and away from the bulk of what got you to that point. In fact, many highlight packages essentially ignored the two dominating scoring drives the Steelers put together in the first three possessions.

(Side note: You often forget about all the other stuff that happened in this game too.)

What is also forgotten about in this game is that the Steelers had a glorious chance to make the contest a three-possession game very early on but an obvious pass interference call in the second quarter, on 3rd and 2, against Indianapolis wasn't called and Pittsburgh was forced to punt instead of getting possession around the Indy 10. Even that early on in the game, the non-call was critical. Pittsburgh could have essentially put the foot on the throat of the Colts instead of playing in the dangerous spot that is a two-possession game against a prolific offence.

People forget that part and, unfortunately, Bettis' fumble, Ben Roethlisberger's season-saving tackle and Mike Vanderjagt's ensuing missed FG will be the images most associated with the game.

Ah, who cares? We won.

The NFL came out publicly on Monday and admitted the refereeing crew headed by Phil Morelli got the interception-turned-incompletion call wrong. Let me preface this by saying that, YES, if the Steelers had lost that game I would be fuming and spewing more venom than all the snakes ever chased out of Ireland.

Still, my viewpoint on this has always been the same: I credit the NFL for at least being professional enough to admit when their crews make mistakes. We all know my feelings on the CFL here where the status quo is accepted and no one is ever wrong. The CFL falls all over itself in a defensive stance to say they don't get it wrong that it just enfuriates you more when you know damn well they do get it wrong. So the NFL admitting a mistake is appreciated.

The NFL refs making the misake is another thing, though.