Super Bowl XL. It was an XL party at my apartment this year with drinks for guys and girls, XL subs, nachos, chex mix, shrimp, new Kettle chip flavors, and the normal vegi plate. We watched the game in HD on ABC (KOMO 4 in Seattle) on my 42″ Fujitsu HD plasma. The game looked great (Gizmodo reasons), but there were issues. First, all of the pre-recorded black & white clips of star players holding the trophy were choppy and ended up cutting out. They had to pull out of them and cut them short. I bet that was a lot of work that went down the tubes, but didn’t change the game.

On the other hand, the officials for this HD XL Super Bowl had a major impact on the game. Holding calls, pass interference, a goal line play, and a rediculous chop block call all caused the Seattle Seahawks to lose momentum, yards, and points. The worst thing is I lost faith in the NFL. The officials missed calls yesterday, and the league has done nothing. NFL.com has no mention of the calls, and that includes the “Analysis & Opinion” section, while it is the cover story over at ESPN.com. In the day of blogs and open exchange of information I fully expect the NFL to be frank and talk about the mistakes. They should do it now, and not wait for it simply fade away. The Seahawks organization is taking the high road and not making any claims or statements, but what I want to know is: Where is the technology to fix these bad calls?

Why can’t the judges in the booth review flags quicker? Why can’t the booth official call down to the ref who has an ear bud and tell him he is about to make a mistake? It wouldn’t take but 15 seconds to see that Locklear didn’t commit a hold, and to wave off the flag. It wouldn’t take but 5 seconds to see that Hasselbeck was unjustly punished 15 yards for a below-the-waist block when he was obviously making a tackle on Taylor. Why isn’t there a rule that a touchdown must be undisputible upon review? Why don’t we have technology to identify the football under a pile of players, or one that places the ball in a virtual 3D field? We have invisible first down lines, but no way to tell if the ball crosses a plane. If your interested in starting a technology company and love sports (i.e. football), it appears the sports technology market is really vacant.