As only a football fan for Super Bowl XL (I had no rooting interest in either team or the outcome), all I can say is that I am extremely frustrated and disappointed with the officiating. If this was supposed to be some of the best officials the league has to offer, then the NFL is in piss-poor shape. Not only did all the calls go against Seattle, those calls led to a 21 point swing. The "pass interference" call on Darrell Jackson was ridiculous (7 points), the phantom holding call on the Seattle RT was one of the worst I've seen (and Seattle would've had the ball on the 1 yard line and certainly would've punched it in from there, another 7 points), Roethlisberger's "touchdown" run was not, because the ball never reached the goal line. Again, another 7 points.
I'm not blaming the entire outcome on the officials. Seattle had their blunders. Stevens couldn't catch a cold, the offense wasted so much time at the ends of both halves running around not knowing what they were doing and the defense gave up a few big plays. But with all that said, when you have 7, 8, 9 & 10 different commentators and analysts from ABC/ESPN all saying that Seattle got jobbed not once, but multiple times (see above examples), there has to be validity there. I'm just glad I wasn't the only one feeling that way while I was watching the game. Pittsburgh fans might not want to hear it, but the officiating was certainly an issue. It goes to show that it isn't just sour grapes from Seattle supporters. The rotten calls were not the only cause of the ultimate outcome, but they were certainly a contributing factor.
It's a shame that we are able to even talk about the officiating because it never should have a huge bearing on the outcome of a game, especially a championship game. Unfortunately, this time it did. But in the end, Pittsburgh won. You have to say congratulations to them.