NFL official Bill Leavy, the referee when several controversial calls were made during Super Bowl XL, is scheduled to be the head official when Seattle travels to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers on Sunday.
During training camp last year at an annual officials meeting held with regular beat reporters of the team to discuss league rule changes, Leavy admitted to getting two calls incorrect in Seattle’s Super Bowl appearance, a 21-10 loss to the Steelers.
One of those calls was a clipping penalty called on Matt Hasselbeck(notes) on making a tackle after throwing an interception. Sean Locklear’s(notes) holding call as the Seahawks were going in for a score also has been questioned since the 2006 game.
“It was a tough thing for me,” Leavy said. “I kicked two calls in the fourth quarter and I impacted the game and as an official you never want to do that. It left me with a lot of sleepless nights and I think about it constantly.
“I’ll go to my grave wishing that I’d been better. I know that I did my best at that time, but it wasn’t good enough. When we make mistakes, you got to step up and own them. It’s something that all officials have to deal with, but unfortunately when you have to deal with it in the Super Bowl it’s difficult.”
The league office is responsible for assigning officials for the week’s slate of games.
Leavy did not ref a Seattle game for the rest of Mike Holmgren’s tenure in Seattle after the Super Bowl game. He finally was assigned a Seattle game in 2009 at San Francisco. And he also worked Seattle’s preseason game in Denver this year.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AoaccUSaC7ti.RN695LmSSP.uLYF?slug=teamreports-2011-nfl-sea
During training camp last year at an annual officials meeting held with regular beat reporters of the team to discuss league rule changes, Leavy admitted to getting two calls incorrect in Seattle’s Super Bowl appearance, a 21-10 loss to the Steelers.
One of those calls was a clipping penalty called on Matt Hasselbeck(notes) on making a tackle after throwing an interception. Sean Locklear’s(notes) holding call as the Seahawks were going in for a score also has been questioned since the 2006 game.
“It was a tough thing for me,” Leavy said. “I kicked two calls in the fourth quarter and I impacted the game and as an official you never want to do that. It left me with a lot of sleepless nights and I think about it constantly.
“I’ll go to my grave wishing that I’d been better. I know that I did my best at that time, but it wasn’t good enough. When we make mistakes, you got to step up and own them. It’s something that all officials have to deal with, but unfortunately when you have to deal with it in the Super Bowl it’s difficult.”
The league office is responsible for assigning officials for the week’s slate of games.
Leavy did not ref a Seattle game for the rest of Mike Holmgren’s tenure in Seattle after the Super Bowl game. He finally was assigned a Seattle game in 2009 at San Francisco. And he also worked Seattle’s preseason game in Denver this year.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AoaccUSaC7ti.RN695LmSSP.uLYF?slug=teamreports-2011-nfl-sea