#36 — Jerome Bettis

If anything can inspire five blogs in five days, it is the greatest moment in my sporting fandom.

So it is with that, I honour the week that follows the Steelers victory in Super Bowl XL — a moment I wondered for weeks what would feel like. This week, I wear all five of my Steelers jerseys, one for each weekday, in continuing on the celebration of an event I can't drag out long enough.

Today, I wore the Bus. I wore it Sunday too. And every Sunday the past eight weeks. As the Steelers went on a must-win streak straight into Detroit, I didn't touch a thing. I wore the same jersey on game day — and only game day — and it didn't see a washer and dryer the entire time.

There could be no better jersey to wear the day after. And after Bettis retired on Sunday — clutching the Vince Lombardi Trophy in his right hand and making his walk into the sunset official — I knew I didn't want to take the jersey off then — and not today either — wanting more to just feel like it was still Sunday night.

Bettis, my favourite athlete of all time, ended his career with his trademark grin, gripping the ultimate football trophy for the first time in his life in front of family and friends in the city he was born and raised. His speech was simple but touching, and I sat there nearly in tears, happy for a guy I wanted so badly to go out a champion.

So what did Monday feel like? Somewhat unfulfilling, actually.

While I was wanting to enjoy as much as possible the first Steelers Super Bowl, for all intents and purposes in my lifetime, instead much of the media attention one day later was in the "poor Seahawks" vane, suggesting Seattle was robbed by the referees.

I'm a fair man, so you can read the arguments here and here.

This absolutely kills me. One thing I will always say after football games in which a player, often a kicker, makes a game-breaking mistake (i.e. missed field goal) is that the game — and any sport — never comes down to that one play. It is the play that people remember, but the game isn't hinged entirely on it. In football, your team probably ran 80 other plays and very likely somewhere in those 80, something happened that people are probably forgetting in their rush to blame the kicker, or whoever the goat is.

Bottom line is, there are literally dozens of plays in a football game that can change the game. Opportunities made or missed.

But now, 24 hours after the Seahawks lost, the crying on the coast has nothing to do with that team's ineffectiveness and everything to do with the referees who fans and media accuse of costing them the biggest game of the year. Hey, have another read if you want.

(Just for the record, Romero says in his Seattle Times piece linked above that "only after (Steeler safety Chris) Hope complained did the official produce a flag." Utterly, entirely, 100 per cent false. On the replay from the end zone, you can see the official reach for his pocket, actually grab for his flag but fumbles it and doesn't pull it out. He reaches right back for the flag again and that's when it comes out. It just so happens that was when Hope protested.)

Two calls stand out in most people's minds as being raw towards the Seahawks. Jackson's push off in the end zone that cost a touchdown and Shawn Locklear's holding call that snuffed out a play that would have had the Seahawks at the Pittsburgh two-yard line.

First, D-Jack. I'll admit it's a touchy foul to call. I'll also admit that if things went the other way I would have sucked it up and agreed with the call. I would have hollered about it at the time, for sure, but the fact remains you can't do it. Television colour guys will tell you ad nauseum on pass plays, if a referee sees a wide receiver extend his arms into a defender, as Jackson did, they'll call it every time. Jackson pushed off, cut at the same time, and created separation between him and Hope. Call it ticky-tack if you want, it's a penalty and it happened early in the game. The Seahawks had 40-plus minutes of football left to remedy the fact they came away with just three points on that drive. And, you know, as I think of it more, if that play had gone the other way, I would bet a lot of money that analysts during the game and after (if it was significant enough in the end result) would be saying something akin to "Ooooh, Jackson got away with a bit of a push off there."

Next, Locklear. Y'know the old adage in football that says you can pretty much call holding on any play? It's true. This time they called it. Hand into the face, hand on the back. Holding. If that wasn't, please define what holding is in the rule book.

The Seahawks returned to Seattle today and had a rally with some 3,000 people at Qwest Field welcoming them back. What happens next is appalling and amateurish. Head coach Mike Holmgren, addressing the crowd, said: "We knew it was going to be tough playing against the Steelers, I didn’t know we were going to have to play the guys in the striped shirts as well.”

Well done, Mike. You're almost enshrined already into the Overrated Coach Hall of Fame and your team pissed away numerous opportunities in the first half to put Pittsburgh away, but you decide that you're the victim here and take your forum to publicly cry about it. Holmgren is the HEAD coach of this team and, with that job, comes some sense of responsibility and professionalism. Instead, he reacted like a schoolchild who lost the tetherball championship when his opponent grabbed a piece of the rope. (Incidentally, if Holmgren made those comments during the season, he would have been fined.)

How about you take some acceptance for the fact you didn't make enough plays? How about your quarterback, Matt Hasselbeck, taking some responsibility for throwing a back-breaking interception on a late drive instead of highlighting two penalties he didn't like. Or, one of you — either of you because you were both a part of this comedy of errors — take responsibility for one of the most God-awful two-minute drills in football history, the late "drive" at the end of the first half in which you had well over a minute left and couldn't advance the ball closer than the 30-yard line.

See, for all the crying and complaining that the referees messed everything up for Seattle, lost in the mix are two things: 1) You don't think any calls could have gone the Steelers way and didn't? 2) That late "drive" in the first half showed all the warts the Seahawks had. Someone needs to remember that, with a chance to make something big happen for themselves, the Seahawks bungled them away.

Alright, I'm gonna stop now because I will NOT be angry a day after the happiest night of my life.

On Tuesday I'll just simply crank up the volume on the TV. You see, I have a parade to watch.

The Steelers will have their ticker-tape through the streets of Pittsburgh and the deafening sounds of cheering, screaming and celebrations of my team's long-awaited championship ride are more than enough to drown out the unwarranted sobbing from some "12th Man."