Winners Win, Losers Blame the Ref

I have made no secret of my disdain for former Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, at least since February of 2006.

To be honest, I had little or no opinion of Holmgren before Super Bowl XL. Admittedly I found his reputation as a so called offensive genius more than a bit overstated. And I noted his striking resemblance to either a walrus or my high school soccer coach (make of that what you will). Beyond that, I truly could care less about him before that game was played.

So why do I despise him so much today? Let’s recap. That day, the black and gold finally broke their 26 year championship drought beating Seattle 21 to 10. It was one of the ugliest Super Bowls every played, unless you were from Pittsburgh. Then it was just “misunderstood.” In the end, a win is a win and a loss is a loss, except for Mike Holmgren.

The Steelers were the better team on that day. They outplayed the Seahawks, although certainly not by a wide margin. More important, Holmgren was badly outcoached by Cowher, Wisenhunt, Lebeau and company.

The Steelers completely changed their defense to a bend but don’t break strategy against the pass while shutting down Seattle’s running game. It was the perfect counter to Holmgren’s quick delivery, west coast passing system; a system ideally suited to short-circuiting the Steeler blitz. The Walrus never adapted. The Steeler coaches found a way to win on a day their QB struggled and pulled out one of the great trick plays in SB history.

Moreover on two separate occasions, Seattle looked confused and out of sorts in the two minute drill; at the end of the first half and late in the game. I amazed at how often this is overlooked, especially given Holmgren’s supposed offensive genius.

So how did Coach Walrus react to being soundly outcoached and his team being outplayed? By blaming the refs, directly, twice. It was embarrassing and pathetic for a supposed leader of men. He did it first while running off the field at halftime (even though the actual question was why did your team choke in the two minute drill). He did it a second time a few days later with his famous “I didn’t know we’d have to play against the guys in the striped shirts too” comment at the Seahawks “runners up” parade.

In that period of approximately 48 hours I lost all respect for Holmgren. In my eyes, at least as a football coach, he will NEVER get it back. Crying about the refs is a loser’s lament. I hate it when fans do it and it’s completely beneath a coach at the highest level of his profession.

Compounding my disdain was the ENTERTAINMENT and sports network in Bristol, an organization that never lets the facts get in the way of a good story. They ran with Holmgren’s crying for days, parallel to their own distorted story about the refs stealing the game from the woebegone Seahawks. Really, why worry about the facts if you can give Mike and Mike a non-story to yapp about for two weeks?

If you want to see how a real leader of men deals with outside adversity; watch the Steeler highlight video from that year. In all the complaining about a few boarder line calls against the Seahawks, everybody seemed to forget that the refs nearly kept the Steelers out of the game to begin with. Remember how they overturned Polamalu’s clear cut interception against Indy a few weeks earlier; after seeing indisputable proof that it was the correct call?

Watch the highlight video and listen to what Cowher tells his defense. He gathers them around and says (paraphrasing), “if they overturn this, we go out and play hard. We don’t worry about things we can’t control. We play.” After the game, which would have been a blowout if not for the phantom reversal, Cowher told the media (paraphrasing again), the refs are the refs. We control what we can control. He did not cry about the inequities of officiating.

I always respected Bill Cowher but my respect for him increased 1000 times that day. I’m still angry about that call in Indy four + years later and I’m just a fan. Imagine how angry Cowher must have been. That call could have cost him one of the great (and well deserved) upsets in NFL history. It could have cost him his long awaited Super Bowl win. And yet he kept his composure, accepted the situation and remained a leader of men. He did not let the officials decide the game, nor did his team. That’s what winners do.

Under far less egregious circumstances, Mike Holmgren cried and whined like a spoiled five year old.

I rehash this tail of woe today in tribute to the USA World Cup soccer team. They could easily have succumbed to the adversity of having two goals taken away from them by officials over two games. This in a sport where games are frequently won 1-0. They could have accepted a draw against Algeria and then blamed the refs, as every fan and media member is already doing. Rest assured, the ENTERTAINMENT and sports network would have been right there with them, bringing in scores of experts to bash FIFA and the refs.

Much to their credit, they did not and I could not be more proud of them as a result. Instead, they did what champions do; they overcame the officiating and found a way to win. They generated scoring chance after scoring chance and finally won on Landon Donovan’s injury time goal in the second half. It was one of the truly great moments in the history of a national team that generated far too many negative headlines at the last World Cup.

Keep this in mind as well. The USA came from 2-0 down against Slovenia which is almost unheard of in World Cup soccer. Not only were they robbed of a victory in that game, they were robbed of one of the great comebacks in soccer history. You can argue, and I won’t disagree, that they dug themselves a huge hole. That being said, give them credit for a never say die comeback for the ages. While the supposed power teams from England, Germany and Italy are underachieving and the French team embarrassed an entire nation, the USA pulled together brilliantly.

Let me clear up a few potential misconceptions before I go any further.

First, I said the USA played like champions and I meant it. Champions overcome adversity and find a way to win. That being said, I’m still not expecting our boys to win this thing. I get frustrated with the “we are happy to be here” attitude I so often hear from American soccer but I can live with the reality of it, especially given their play today.

Second, I’m not suggesting they were not angry at being robbed of two goals, nor that they should not be. The call today was boarder line; the call last Friday was a Polamalu caliber abomination of sport. Even worse was FIFA’s decision to never identify what the call actually was or admit a mistake was made. Far be it for anybody to have accountability in the most visible sporting event on the planet.

That being said, they kept their composure and played through the adversity. History suggests that’s not always the case, whether it’s bad officiating or other outside factors beyond the players’ control.

I lost a ton of respect for Dusty Baker, Moises Alou, and all of the Chicago Cubs for collapsing in the 2003 league championship, ostensibly because a fan tipped a foul ball in the stands. Alou had a temper tantrum on national TV, the Cubs imploded, and then the robotic Baker happily pinned the blame on the fan, rather than himself or his choking players.

Beyond the fact that this contributed to a criminally irresponsible media frenzy that nearly ruined the young man’s life, it also showed a total lack of character, accountability, or self respect on the part of the Cubs. No wonder they collapsed so completely in the end. Just a thought but maybe the best professional athletes on earth should be able to shake off a tipped foul ball, especially with a three run lead in the 8th inning and a 3-2 lead in the series.

So its not a given that a team will overcome outside factors. These players work their entire lives to get to this level, play their guts out and then have their efforts nullified by bad officiating. This in the biggest sporting event on the planet and the one with the smallest margin of error. If ever there was a chance for them to succumb to excuses or come unglued this was it. There is little doubt in my mind that previous USA teams would have fallen apart, even the successful teams from 94 and 06. This one did not.

Kudos to coach Bob Bradley for his leadership. I’m thrilled that the USA stayed in house rather than hiring an international ringer as coach and Bradley justified their faith. He basically told everyone to accept the situation, move on and play to win. He never lost site of the big picture.

Kudos to Landon Donovan for finally playing like the superstar he is. The best players, the Lemieux, Crosby, Malkin and the Talbots of the world come through when their team needs them the most. Donovan has been brilliant in this tournament and you get the feeling that he was not going to let his team lose today.

Kudos to Tim Howard because as we all know, the goalkeeper is a superior form of life.

And kudos to the entire team for not giving up, for overcoming adversity, and fighting to the finish. They may not win this World Cup, but during their last game and a half they played like true champions.