The Super Bowl XLIII Zebra Report

FanHouse's resident referee will chime in quasi-weekly with thoughts on major topics relating to officiating. We call it The Zebra Report. Matt Snyder is a high school official with eight years experience. While this is like a third-year resident critiquing the work of a world-renowned surgeon, it's still better than someone who has never worn the stripes.

First of all, congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers. That was one hell of a Super Bowl with a dramatic ending. The first thing I want to say about the officiating is that I believe it was a very well officiated game. We'll delve right into the alleged controversial calls and sort things out.

1. Ben Roethlisberger scores a touchdown, and the replay overturned the ruling on the field. I'm no more qualified to judge this play than any other football fan. I saw what you saw: A big amoeba where you can't tell exactly what happened or exactly where the ball was when Big Ben's knee hit the ground. This was a very tough call, and I can't imagine how tough it would have been for the linesmen to make a full-speed judgment. I have no problem with the call on the field or the ensuing reversal.

Also, on this play, it appeared an offensive lineman grabbed Roethlisberger and aided his move toward the goal-line. Some people wanted the officials to call an assisting-the-runner penalty. While it's true there is a penalty for this, it rarely -- if ever -- gets called. In order for someone to garner a penalty for this, they'd pretty much have to pick up the ballcarrier and walk them forward. Generally speaking, you are never going to get a call for garden variety pushing and pulling your teammate. That's just the way the game is called.

2. James Harrison takes an interception back 100 yards for a touchdown. I believe it was the correct call to give him the touchdown. Immediately when he hit the ground, the ball was touching the goal-line. This was another one where it was very close.

3. Karlos Dansby is called for roughing the passer. He appeared to take a step and push Roethlisberger to the ground a split-second after releasing the pass. Personally, I didn't care for this one. I thought it was "bang-bang" enough to let it slide. On the other hand, roughing the passer has been called quite tightly all season, so they need to maintain consistency in the biggest game of the year. Plus, it's pretty stupid to shove the quarterback after he's released the football.

4. Roughing the holder on Adrian Wilson. This had to have been the easiest call Terry McAulay made all season. To answer the hypothetical questions ... Yes, you can have roughing the holder. You can also have roughing the snapper (on punts and field goals). McAulay did not announce the penalty correctly, though. He said, "unnecessary roughness," which would have meant the penalty enforcement would come on the ensuing kickoff. Roughing the holder, however, gives the offense an automatic first down and continues the drive. They enforced the penalty correctly for the call, though, so that's really all that matters.

5. Harrison receives an unnecessary roughness penalty. He should have been thrown out of the game. That was a dirty, uncalled for, pathetic reaction from a great football player. There's no room for that crap in the Super Bowl. The only explanation I can come up with is that the officials didn't see his punch, and only saw the shoving afterwards, because a punch is an automatic disqualification.

6. Holding called on the Steelers in the end-zone results in an Arizona safety. That was a great, gutsy call. You can't just tackle a defender and get away with it, but sometimes those calls get missed. In this case, the Steelers were just about to ice the football game, but the officials hung in there and made the correct call. Great work, boys.

7. Santonio Holmes uses the football as a "prop" in his touchdown celebration, and is not penalized 15 yards. Really, the only explanation is that no official saw this, otherwise they just ignored what is deemed to be an automatic penalty. Those 15 yards would have been huge for the Cards, too. I'm sure it was quite hectic down there on the field in the aftermath of the play, especially since they were headed to the replay booth. When you can't review things like this, and there are seven human beings trying to watch 22 guys, things of this nature will happen.

Last, and certainly not least ... the end of the game. Kurt Warner's hand was clearly moving forward when he fumbled the football. This is the fact the naysayers are clinging to, while conveniently ignoring the fact that he did not have possession of the football when his arm started moving forward. Look, I'm a fan at heart, and I was rooting for Arizona. Initially, when I saw the play, I started going crazy thinking they got it wrong. When you watch the replay, and can distance yourself from any fanatical thoughts, however, it's obvious the call on the field was correct. Again, Warner did not have possession of the football when his arm was moving forward. That's a textbook fumble.

One thing to discuss in this situation, though, is that they didn't send the play to a booth review. I'm surprised they didn't just give a courtesy review. It seems like they usually review any close call in the last two minutes of big games, so I'm actually shocked they didn't give this one the same treatment. This isn't to say the officials or the NFL did anything wrong, because they don't have to review anything. I'm just saying that I'm surprised they didn't send it to the booth to be sure.

It matters not, though, because the end result would have been the same. Kurt Warner fumbled the football. End of discussion. The question everyone should be asking, instead of going after the officials, was why did Warner hold the ball in the pocket for seven seconds?

As I said, this was a very well officiated game. The only real questionable call, in my mind, was the roughing the passer call on Dansby, and that was in line with how the game has been called all season. So, really, the guys in stripes did their job in the biggest game of the season.