But Dave Concepcion SHOULD be in the Hall of Fame. Of course, I'm one of those freaks who would probably put then entire starting line-up of the 1975 Reds in the Hall. Also Ron Oester. Yeah, yeah, I know, but, man, Ron Oester was just swell.

I'm on the Steelers-disbanded-and-their-stadium-sown-with-salt bandwagon, probably something to do with my Cincinnati childhood (though, gah, the Bengals, bleh), and yet somehow I find Ben's vapidly nitwitted Lawd'n'Saveyer claptrap produces slightly less projectile vomiting from me than Kurt Warner's. Could that mean I might actually want the Steelers to win? Jesus! Wait, did I just use the Lord's name in vain? Now I'm fucked. Does Edge stand in the middle of the market, er, field and pray like the hypocrites? What about Fitzgerald? Maybe I can hang my hope on one of them.

Okay, I vote for whichever quarterback paints "Matt. 6:5" on his cheek black and then doesn't thank God for whatever the fuck these nitwits are always thanking him for. I mean, do they even know? Doubtful.

But even more than that, I hope the commercials don't suck, because the last few Super Bowls they've mostly sucked.

Oh, I know something to thank our Lawd'n'Saveyer® for: Fox Sports got NOTHING to do with this Super Bowl. Though Al Michaels I can do without.

Mrs. Duggar is frighteningly reminiscent of the Terry Jones mother from Monty Python's Meaning of Life "Every Sperm Is Sacred" bit. Stepford is downright homey in comparison to the Duggar freakshow.

My question: has TLC (aka What The Fuck? Television) signed up Nadya Suleman yet?

When the NFL announced the team, with that guy from the Titans/Ravens game at ref, I thought, "Great. We're fucked." Impossible to say if it made a difference (though that roughing the passer call was a joke, especially considering the crap that guy let the Ravens get away with), but in the end the Steelers did what they had to do take the game back from the Cardinals. Ben more than made up for his nervousness in his last Super Bowl and Holmes earned his MVP summa cum laude.

Kudos to the Steelers, and that's hard for me to say. I mean, damn, I hate the Steelers, but they did it, six now. Good for them and gratz to their fans.

Enough folks have commented that James Harrison's 100-yard interception return is now the greatest Super Bowl play ever that a retort seems necessary. No, Tyree still holds that title, as exciting and unlikely as Harrison's return was. In the Tyree play, everyone did everything they could, made no mistakes, and the crazy thing happened. Even Rodney Harrison, who covered Tyree on the play, admitted as much in the pre-game.

James Harrison's interception depended on Warner making a boneheaded throw. After that, hell, yes, he not only caught the ball but beat tackles for a hundred yards, but if Warner doesn't make a mistake, the play never happens.

Tyree wins not just on spectacle on the fact that it was just a damned amazing football play in which everyone involved played balls out and made no mistakes.

As for Warner in the HOF, I mean, seriously? I know there was talk of that in the build up to this Super Bowl, but wasn't it all just feel-good claptrap? The guy has had a few amazing seasons and has a striking story, but he's mixed it up with some real dogs. Even if the Cards had won, he hasn't had a HOF career. Too much chaff with the wheat, as his type would say.

Even if you're right, and even if you're wrong, the fact that the argument exists suggests something important about the NFL brand. It's eroding, and it's eroding at least in part because the spectators are increasingly distrustful of the quality of the officiating.

Used to be, of all the major sports, the one thing that seemed certain was that NFL officials were professional, fair, and supremely competent. What seems to be the case now is that the competence is vanishing, the professionalism with it, and there's a sneaking suspicion that the fairness is starting to vanish as well. When it comes to the officials, the NFL is starting to look more like the NBA. (Now, to be fair, the NBA lost me a few years ago, and for all I know the current officials are no longer a hyper-emotional crop of ego maniacal prima donnas spoiling for a fight.)

I'm not much of a sports follower anymore, mostly because the the way the business of sports has become more important than the sport itself has turned me off. But I've stuck with the NFL longer than the others, and a lot of that has to do with the sense that zebras were fair and damned good at their jobs. I'm not so sure anymore, which has contributed to my decreasing interest.

Yesterday's Super Bowl had, I think, poor officiating. Not Super Bowl XL poor, and not Ed Hochuli "I blew it" poor, but pretty weak. That can't help but taint the product. Now, I don't think the officials "handed" the game to the Steelers, and I don't think there is any way to say for sure the outcome would have been different had they been more competent. But I can't be sure. I dunno. Would not calling that joke of a roughing the passer penalty have changed the shape of that drive? Would consistent holding penalties and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties made a difference? Who can know?

Given what they had to work with, in the end, the Steelers won, and even a committed Steelers-hater such as myself won't admit grudging admiration for that final drive, and in particular, that game-winning catch.

But as someone who used to live for the NFL, I wish it could have happened without so many questions, questions that have grown in recent years.

In that last letter, I meant to say a Steelers-hater such as myself WILL admit admiration for that final drive, etc. etc. Gah.