Recently I was watching an NFL Films special on the Tuck Rule Game. It featured interviews with Oakland players who cried endlessly about how they got screwed out of going to the AFC Championship Game. In their blind rage, they missed two important points about that play. First, it was the right call. If you look at the rule book, Tom Brady’s motion did not constitute a fumble, regardless of whether he intended to throw the ball or tuck it back. Secondly and even more obvious, the play resulted in a lost down for New England, not a go-ahead score. Oakland still had the lead and still had plenty of chances to stop the Patriots from tying the game in regulation and subsequently winning the game in overtime. After watching this, I realized that many of the so-called “controversial” calls in NFL history are overblown. Did they impact the game? Sure, but there are only a handful of controversial calls that directly led to one team winning the game. Great teams can overcome bad calls and still find a way to win. Not-so-great teams will collapse and use the call as their excuse for losing. This trend is no different for the Steelers than it is for any other team. There have been controversial calls that the players and fans have overblown, and there have been calls that have gone in our favor that the opposing team and its fans have overblown. This week’s America Loves Countdowns® series looks at some of each type.

The Kurt Warner Fumble
On the final play of Super Bowl XLIII, Kurt Warner was hit by LaMarr Woodley and fumbled the ball, ending the game. There were fans (albeit a smaller group than others on this list) who insisted that the referees should have reviewed the play and that it should have been ruled an incomplete pass. However, the play was reviewed in the box, and it was decided that the fumble was so obvious that it did not even warrant a full review. Even if there had been a review and the play overturned (which would have been the wrong call), Arizona would have only gotten to throw a hail mary, which would have had a very low chance of success even given Larry Fitzgerald’s god-like abilities.

The Cleveland Time Cut
In a game which will forever be known by this website as The Worst Debacle Ever, Pittsburgh absolutely blew their chance to tie or win the game in the most unfathomable way possible. After two other stupid plays, the Steelers took a sack, which meant that they had to rush their field goal unit out because they were out of timeouts and the clock was running. Time expired before they could get set up, which led the NFL to later issue an apology because technically there should have been more time left (the clock should have temporarily stopped for the ball to be reset after the sack). Some Steelers fans were upset about the mishap, but let’s be honest – that was not the reason we lost that game. We had every chance possible and we threw it into the toilet. So what if they would have had an extra second or two? They didn’t deserve it, nor would they have done anything positive with it at that point. Blaming the refs for that one is silly.

The Phantom Kordell Touchdown
When the Steelers and Colts met in Pittsburgh for the 1995 AFC Championship Game, few people expected Indianapolis to take the game all the way down to the final play. The Colts were definitely up for the challenge, and in the first half they had built a 7-3 lead. The Steelers put together a late drive before halftime and capped it with a short touchdown pass from QB Neil O’Donnell to Kordell Stewart, who played receiver that season. Missed on the play was the fact that Stewart’s foot appeared to touch the back line of the endzone, which means that his catch should have been disallowed (coming back in bounds to make a catch is illegal touching). The refs missed it and the TD stood. It probably was a miss, but at what cost? The game was still in the first half, and the Colts had more than enough chances to win the game in the second half (like if Lamont Warren could have run thru that giant hole on 3rd and 1, or if Quentin Coryatt could have hung onto the interception that was right in his arms, or if the Colts defense could have stopped the Steelers on 4th and 3). Once again this is a case where the bad call could have been (and almost was) easily overcome.

The Coin Toss Debacle
On Thanksgiving Day 1998, referee Phil Luckett made an error which will live in infamy. He botched an overtime coin toss. Steelers RB Jerome Bettis called tails, but Luckett said that he called heads and awarded the ball to Detroit. Yes, it was a joke of a call, but it in no way cost the Steelers that game. They did that all by themselves. Pittsburgh had already blown a 10 point lead by the time overtime came, and the defense still had a chance to stop the Lions on their OT possession, but a dumb facemask penalty did them in. Plus, winning the coin toss in no way guaranteed Pittsburgh a victory in that game. It may have seemed cruel given the absurd circumstances (seriously, how do you mess up heads and tails?), but the Steelers deserved to lose that game regardless.

The Darrell Jackson Pass Interference
In Super Bowl XL, the Seahawks had an early touchdown taken away by offensive pass interference on WR Darrell Jackson. To this day, people continue to point to that play as somehow cheating Seattle. The problem is that while offensive pass interference is rarely called, it is still a valid penalty. In fact, few people remember that the Steelers were flagged for the very same thing later in the game. Jackson pushed off of defender Chris Hope, allowing him to make the catch. Sorry, but that is a penalty. Even if it were a borderline call, Seattle still had plenty of chances to redeem it, but they blew every one of those chances. In Super Bowl XXX, the Cowboys also had a first half touchdown taken off the board when WR Michael Irvin interfered with a Steelers defender. No one remembers that though, because Dallas quickly forgot about the call and scored 13 unanswered points. That is what championship teams do, which is why Seattle was never going to win that game.

The No-Hold
The 2007 Steelers won their division and were a pretty good team. That being said, they were never going to make it very far. The team was injured and tired by the end of the year, and they faced a Jacksonville team in the playoffs who was flat-out better than they were. The Jaguars took a huge lead, but to Pittsburgh’s credit, they made a thrilling comeback and actually had the lead in the game’s final moments. It all came down to a 4th and 2 play. The Steelers defense allowed QB David Garrard to scramble for a 32-yard gain. That would set up a game-winning field goal for Jacksonville. The Steelers complained that they were held on the play, and the replay seemed to confirm that. However, while the holding may have allowed Garrard to get the first down, there was no excuse for giving up the additional 30 yards. Also, the Steelers had benefited by a bad penalty on the Jaguars (a Hine Ward-staged pass interference penalty in the endzone when Jacksonville had appeared to stop them). To blame that game or that season on a missed hold is a stretch of logic.

The Immaculate Bounce
The 1972 playoff game between the Raiders and Steelers will always be remembered for the Immaculate Reception. Unlike some of the other controversial calls on this list, that one did in fact lead directly to Oakland losing the game. However, the Raiders have overblown this over the years due to one simple reason: the call was correct! If you go by the laws of physics, there was no way that Jack Tatum could have rocketed himself in one direction without hitting that ball, since the ball ricocheted in the exact opposite direction that Tatum was flying. At most, Frenchy Fuqua may have gotten a hand on the ball, but his hand would have not caused the ball to fly backwards 20 yards the way it did. I have never understood why that was even considered controversial.

The Onside Kick Interference
In 2000, the Steelers finished 9-7 and barely missed the playoffs. With a lack of one true dominant team that year, who knows what damage they could have done had they qualified for the post-season? After all, they had beaten the two teams (Baltimore and Oakland) who ultimately ended up playing in the AFC title game. Their misfortune of needing one more win can really be tied back to a game in November in which they suffered a shocking collapse against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Steelers had taken a 23-13 lead with just three minutes left in regulation after a time-consuming drive which forced Philadelphia to use all three of their timeouts, all but guaranteeing a Pittsburgh victory. But the Eagles came back. They drove down the field for a touchdown, recovered an onside kick, kicked a field goal, then won the game in overtime. The reason this game ended up being controversial is because on the onside kick that Philly recovered, an Eagles player interfered with Hines Ward’s ability to catch the kick. That should have been a penalty and the NFL later admitted as much. The reason this was overblown is because even with the recovery of that onside kick, the Steelers defense still had THREE chances to win the game. Had they stopped the Eagles on either of the two regulation drives or the overtime drive, there would have been no thought even given to the onside kick. The one thing that kept the Steelers from realizing their full potential that year was their inability to closeout games. It had very little to do with the refs.

The Benny Barnes Trip
In Super Bowl XIII, the Steelers and Cowboys were locked in a tight game when Terry Bradshaw threw a deep ball to WR Lynn Swann. The receiver got tangled up with Dallas DB Benny Barnes and the refs called pass interference against Dallas, resulting in a 33-yard gain for the Steelers. While replays made it look as if the two players simply got their feet entangled, most of the time those kinds of things are going to go against the defense. Of course Dallas used it as an excuse for losing (just like they did to poor Jackie Smith), but that is absurd. It may have been a bad break, but they still had a chance to hold the Steelers to just a field goal. Instead they let Franco storm thru their defense on a big 3rd down play, then fumbled the ensuing kickoff, leading to another Pittsburgh touchdown.

The Mike Renfro Catch
The 1979 AFC Championship Game was a tough pill to swallow for the Houston Oilers. By all accounts, they were probably the second best team in the NFL that year. They would have beaten the Rams in the Super Bowl and they beat everyone else in their own conference, but they couldn’t beat Pittsburgh. Oilers players and fans still point to a critical play in the second half of that game. Houston WR Mike Renfro appeared to catch a touchdown in the back corner of the endzone, but after a brief discussion and disabled by the fact that there was no instant replay, the refs called it an incomplete pass. To be fair, the Oilers did get screwed because replays clearly showed that Renfro in fact made the catch in bounds. So why is it overblown? Because of the situation. Pittsburgh held a 17-10 lead at the time. Renfro’s touchdown would have tied the game, but instead Houston had to settle for a field goal, making it 17-13. The Steelers offense them stormed down the field for two more scores, while the Oilers never again sniffed the endzone. The final score ended up being 27-13 in favor of the Steelers. Had Renfro’s touchdown counted, the final score would have been 27-17 in favor of the Steelers. Despite that obvious fact, the bad call was shown over and over again for years, and indirectly led to the first incarnation of instant replay in the NFL. It was quite simply the most overrated controversial call ever involving the Steelers.