Arizona's final complaint
An unthrown flag that would have helped the Cardinals in the Super Bowl.
Truth is, I might very well have thrown something at the television if one of the officials had thrown a penalty flag on this one, but the rulebook says that the Steelers got away with one at the end of the Super Bowl.
No, I'm not talking about the fumble at the very end. I think they got that one right -- the ball was coming out of quarterback Kurt Warner's hand before his arm moved forward, and if you don't have total control at that point, it is a fumble. They could have replayed it and had the ref go under the hood one more time, just for laughs, but it really wasn't necessary. The guys in the booth had a good look at it and agreed with the call on the field and saw no need. Again, they were right.
No, this was before that. It was after Santonio Holmes' outrageous, game-winning catch. It was on the celebration, when Holmes made like Lebron James, pantomiming with the football, pretending it was a shaker full of powder and then tossing a handful of the imaginary powder into the air.
That is technically against the rules. You can't use a prop in your celebration, and Holmes used the football as a prop. It is no more of a technicality than the penalty the officials called about a minute later when one of the Steelers took of his helmet in celebration after Warner's fumble.
So, if rules are rules, the Steelers are kicking off from their 20-yard line after the touchdown, and the Cardinals would have been 15 yards closer at the end. Which would have affected play-calling and all kinds of decisions, in all likelihood. Just saying.
Anyway, here's the video: