should all just lift weights and get diesel like Ed Hocculi during the offseason.

Good call on the Roethlisberger block in the back, I'd forgotten about that. It's true that the clock slipped down to zero on the delay of game noncall, but honestly, that play must have happened a thousand times this season. I've kind of just zoned it out at this point. Maybe it'll be a point of emphasis next year.

"People, can we get over the Jackson pylon touchdown? Two things:

1. Hitting the pylon with your foot does not a reception make. The rule is, two feet have to touch THE GROUND inbounds for it to be a catch. I don't know why the pylon is inbounds, but doesn't get you a completion if you have one foot inbounds on the ground and one on the pylon. But that's the way it is. Both feet have to hit the ground -- the ground -- inbounds. The pylon is not, to put it bluntly, the ground."

Not to be argumentative, but where is this rule? I want to read the actual rule about the pylon and catches. Do you, King Kaufman, have special journalist access to NFL rules? Are they secret or something? I'm serious, I'm not trying to be snarky. The only thing I can find is this (http://www.nfl.com/news/story/5153800)

"A player no longer can be ruled out of bounds when he touches a pylon unless he already touched the boundary line."

Which seems different.

While I think it is letting the Seahawks off too easily to blame it on the officiating, it is letting the officials and the NFL off too easily to blame it all on the Seahawks. Non-Seahawks fans are telling Seahawks fans, in essence, to suck it up. Imagine the climate if Pittsburgh had been the recipient of the bad calls? I think there would be an even huger hissy fit being thrown. The Seahawks didn't do much to legitimize themselves in the national spotlight and that's that, an opportunity blown. But they are members in good stead of the NFL and have the right to fair treatment and to complain if they think they didn't get it.

I read that the Holmgren/Cowher non-handshake was a matter of miscommunication. I mean, obviously. Does anyone seriously think Holmgren snubbed him intentionally? That's silly.

Tim,

It's more a case of wanting to "seem professional," both on the field and in the broadcast booth. There wasn't anyone watching who didn't recognize old "old college tricks plays," and I've seen trickier ones pulled off better by the college kids. But the coat 'n' tie mentality of "professionalism" makes people do, say and even think in terms they wouldn't when they're at home. You'll see it in most walks of life.

I read that the Holmgren/Cowher non-handshake was a matter of miscommunication. I mean, obviously. Does anyone seriously think Holmgren snubbed him intentionally? That's silly.

It strikes me as silly to think Holmgren was unaware of the previous 39 handshakes at midfield following Super Bowls, or indeed the handshake that follows every pro, college and high school football game.

----------------

I'm looking forward to the NFLs head of officials going over the big calls in tonights NFL network show. He always shows up with the best angles, and is ready to admit it when they screw something up like the Polamalu int vs Indy or when they still have no idea of what truly happened as was the case with the Champ Bailey fumble before/through the endzone vs the Pats.

Then go ahead. Who am I to take that pleasure from someone? But if he wanted to snub Cowher, wouldn't he say so? Wouldn't he say "I didn't want to shake that jerk's hand?"

"NO SNUB: Television cameras caught Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher looking for Holmgren for a handshake that never happened on the field after the Super Bowl.

What they didn't show was Holmgren waiting for Cowher at the 25-yard line closest to the tunnel leading off the field. That was where Holmgren was told the postgame handshake would take place, but Cowher was elsewhere. The field is so full of people after the game it was impossible for them to see each other.

It was logistics, and nothing else, that delayed the handshake.

The two shook hands after leaving the field."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/football/258486_hbok07.html

That just seems a little sad. Holmgren had clock management issues after the game too!

It strikes me as silly to think Holmgren was unaware of the previous 39 handshakes at midfield following Super Bowls, or indeed the handshake that follows every pro, college and high school football game.

At non-Superbowls there aren't a few thousand people, confetti, cannons, elephants, etc. Just because it hasn't happened in previous Superbowls (and I haven't kept a tally of the handshakes) doesn't mean it couldn't have happened this time.

Thanks for providing the link that says Holmgren really didn't know where to look for Cowher. It's amazing the press was able to find Bill with all those elephants on the field. :)

In all seriousness, I am much happier thinking it was confusion rather than a product of Holmgren being a jerk, I honestly could not believe any adult could be unaware of where these handshakes take place. If some Ford Field staffers screwed it up by pointing Mike in another direction then it's a shame. Sportsmanship, even non-spontaneous, semi-fake sportsmanship, is always nice to see.

"Sportsmanship, even non-spontaneous, semi-fake sportsmanship, is always nice to see."

I completely agree. I love in hockey how they try to kill each other for an hour and then shake hands. Though sometimes I wonder if we like to see the obligatory handshake because it is such an uncomfortable situation and we get a cruel thrill out of it.

The hockey post-game handshake line might just be the best tradition in all sports. As you say, no small part of it has to be the weird joy that comes from knowing how awful it must feel for the guys in the wrong sweaters/unis.

As an unapologetic Steeler fan (I was born there. Wait, does that count as an apology, or is that just an informatory aside???), it killed me to see Cowher not get the handshake he had given from the losing side sooo many times.

Now all is right with the world. At least until my Boss stops by...