In a season marred by substitute officials in the first three games, the last game of the 2012 season revisited that problem in an eery way. No matter your opinion of how the game was officiated the Baltimore Ravens are the World Champions of professional football this morning after a 34-31 win over San Francisco in Super Bowl XLVII.
Ray Lewis will go down with names like Otto Graham, John Elway and Michael Strahan as players who left the field as champions. Lewis announced one month ago this would be his last season and that gave Baltimore the emotional impedes to make the trek to a title when nobody thought they could. Not even a 35 minute delay could deny the Ravens, although the Niners did their best to come back from a 22 point deficit to pull within three at the end.
Even with a 28-6 lead, Baltimore wasn’t dominating the game. San Francisco was beating themselves. A fumble in the second quarter led to a Ravens TD, followed by the first interception thrown by a 49er quarterback ever in Super Bowl play. Colin Kaepernick couldn’t match Joe Montana and Steve Young’s performance when Ravens safety Ed Reed intercepted his 21st career playoff pass, then the mealy began.
It was amazing a crew led by Jerome Boger could amass enough points to referee a championship game. Boger, by the naked eye, is mediocre at best. This game proved it. After Reed was tackled, the lack of officiating control in the game showed as a fight ensued. This fight was culminated by two plays earlier that the officials let go.
First was the play on third down when Joe Flacco scrambled to his right and completed a 31 yard pass up the sideline to leaping Anquan Boldin. After the catch Boldin then went face to face with CB Chris Culliver and head-butted him. In this day of player protection and safety, one would think a penalty would have been leveled. Yet no flag was thrown.
Later Ravens defensive lineman Arthur Jones threw a punch at a Niners offensive lineman in front of an official. Again no flag thrown. Was it 
any wonder why the fight took place. During that fight came the most glaring officiating mistake made until the last series. Baltimore CB Cary Williams is caught on tape giving a side judge a forearm push in the chest. Normally this is an automatic instant ejection, but Williams was allowed to stay in the game. In fact during the entire incident, only two personal foul penalties were given, one on each team leading to offsetting penalties, meaning virtually nothing happened.
Before we delve into the final series, Monday morning the explanation given for the tenor of officiating in the game was they let the players “play.” What happens in the regular season then? Why is a championship game refereed differently than any other game? For 16 games, then 2 or 3 playoff contests, each Super Bowl participant plays a certain style and expects the game to be called a certain way.
Going into the final series with the game in doubt, San Francisco threw the ball into the end zone twice and both plays were questionable. Michael Crabtree was interfered with on third down. Then grabbed and held by Jimmy Smith on fourth. Neither was called. As a fan you could expect one play not called, but both?
The old saying is referees don’t want to be the reason a team wins or loses at the end. That is wrong. Any play called, no matter when in the game, can lead a team to a win or loss. A call at the end of a game in the regular season can determine a Super Bowl participant just as much as the playoffs can.
As an example, review the last game officiated by substitute refs in Seattle. A game won by the Seahawks on the last play over Green Bay. With that loss the Packers finished with the number three seed. Add that win to their total, which it should have been, and Green Bay gets the second seed, a first round bye and plays the semi finals at home against San Francisco. Also Chicago would have made the playoffs, not Seattle, and Lovie Smith might still have a job.
Hall of Fame enshrinee Cris Carter opined Monday morning the last play was a good call because Smith lined up on the inside of Crabtree, taking away the slant. According to Carter, Crabtree’s “lack of execution” off the line caused the infraction and no flag.
With all do apologies to the newly appointed receiver, if an official is looking for execution by a player they aren’t doing their job. An official is there to call what he see under the rules of the league. If they aren’t going to do that, just throw the book away and go by the honor system. A penalty in the first quarter should be a penalty in the last minute, no matter what the sport.
Every replay angle showed a grab from Smith. Crabtree did push off, but had too because of the initial hold. When asked if he felt a penalty would be called, Crabtree nodded. After the game he had five catches for 109 yards, including a touchdown in the third quarter. Crabtree earned the call.
But on a day that began with Alicia Keyes rendition of the National Anthem, to the officiating, the announcing, then a power outage, this Super Bowl will go down as what appeared to be a close game.
Yet was really a disappointing show by the NFL.
Dave Mitchell co-hosts with Mark Donahue the UST talk show “Ohio Baseball Weekly,” highlighting the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds. The Show returns on March 4th at 9pm with a two hour special.
