The American Spectator

AmSpecBlog

The Penalty Bowl

By Philip Klein on 2.2.09 @ 12:33PM

After last year's Super Bowl, I made a case for it being the greatest ever. Now I'm hearing some people argue that last night's was even better, but I don't think so. To be sure, the game had a lot of great plays (James Harrison's 100-yard interception return, Larry Fitzgerald's touchdowns, and Santonio Holmes' winning catch). The fourth quarter got really exciting. But what tainted the experience for me was the amount of penalties. I'm not faulting the refs for this, because the Cardinals made some absolutely bone-headed mistakes, ending up with 11 penalties that added up to a Super Bowl record 106 yards (Pittsburgh had 7 for 56 yards). Even though I didn't have a dog in this fight, I found it incredibly frustrating as a viewer, because there was a stretch when it seemed like every play resulted in a flag. You just hate to see that in a game like this. So, overall, it was a lot of fun to watch, but I think it loses some points because of the sloppy play.