The Pittsburgh Steelers captured their fifth Super Bowl victory at the end of the 2005 NFL season when they beat the Seattle Seahawks by a score of 21-10. This was just Ben Roethlisberger's second season playing professional football, and it was Jerome Bettis' last game in the NFL as he retired after the season. This game is often seen as one of the more boring Super Bowls of the 21st century, but it did have some questionable calls that former Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck questioned in a recent podcast appearance.
Steelers' Super Bowl XL Victory Questioned By Hasselbeck
The Steelers won the game by multiple possessions, so the outcome of the game was never in question. There were questionable calls made by the officials that surely benefitted both Pittsburgh and Seattle. The Seahawks scored a touchdown that ended up being called back due to offensive pass interference, there was a holding call on the Seahawks that had the NFL world upset, and Seattle's tight end Jerramy Stevens had a clear fumble that was ruled an incompletion instead.
A play that sparked a lot of controversy was a second quarter touchdown run by Roethlisberger. It was the Steelers' first points of the game, and gave them a 7-3 lead. This touchdown came on third and goal, so if Roethlisberger wasn't able to get into the end zone, it is likely the Steelers would have kicked a field goal to tie the game up rather than gaining the lead. The play was ruled a touchdown on the field, and there was not enough evidence to overturn the call, although it did seem Roethlisberger was short of the goal line.
Hasselbeck made a recent appearance on the Go Long podcast, which is hosted by Tyler Dunne. The two spoke about the Super Bowl Hasselbeck had lost back in the 2005 season, which sparked a conversation about the questionable calls made in the game and the NFL's officiating as a whole. Hasselbeck acknowledged the questionable calls, but also seemed to take the side of the officials by saying he would never blame them.
"I will never really blame officiating, and I for sure will never let my kids blame officiating. My kids are playing travel sports or whatever, and the natural thing is for them to get in the car after a loss and blame the referee. That doesn't happen in my house. I think that's a life lesson. Those guys are human too, they're doing the best they can."
It can be assumed Hasselbeck didn't always feel this way. It is nearly 20 years since the game, so he has had some time to get over the loss. He and the rest of his teammates must have felt like they had a Super Bowl ring taken from them due to the officiating. Hasselbeck say's he doesn't blame officials, but he does think the NFL is wrong in the way they elect officials for the Super Bowl.
"I will say this though, and I feel strongly about this; those officials, they work as a team. And the way the NFL was selecting officials then and maybe even now is they would take each different type of official who graded out well during the year, and as a reward, they would let them have the Super Bowl. It's why a Super Bowl team would always beat a Pro Bowl team. Like you're not together, it's all about communicating."
The NFL does not mix and match officials from different crews anymore for the Super Bowl, but the fact that they did is insane and explains why there were so many questionable calls. They had a group of officials who had likely never worked with one another before and have never had experience with that particular group. Even though Hasselbeck doesn't personally blame the officials who made certain calls during Super Bowl XL, he absolutely does blame the NFL for the way that they used to select their officials for the league's most important game of the year.
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