How would you like to be Super Bowl referee Bill Leavy right now, sitting in your kitchen, cradling a cup of coffee, wondering what happened? How in the space of less than four hours you went from being a mostly anonymous but well-respected member of one of sports most exclusive clubs (NFL referee) to one of sports most recognized and reviled figures? Imagine knowing the only place you can vacation this summer if you want to get any peace and quiet is Pittsburgh...yikes!

In the wake of an NFL postseason where the officiating was considered questionable at best, came Super Bowl XL where many observers felt the officiating crew, led by Leavy, may have had as much or more to do with the Steelers winning their fifth Super Bowl than the Pittsburgh players, most of whom played as if they had had a little Super Bowl party of their own before kickoff.

Virtually every questionable call seemed to go against the Seahawks, making Leavy and his crew about as popular in Seattle as the guy that invented the bikini is in Tehran. Columnist Ted Miller, writing in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Tuesday, comes close to floating an NFL conspiracy theory, using words like "screwed, dubious, stupid, dastardly and execrable" in his article, which ends, "It's just too bad --- for everyone --- that the officials made sure Super Bowl XL wasn't 'Extra Large,' as the joke went, but 'Extremely Lame.'"

Most people that watched the game, or at least me, feel it wasn't a case of some unnamed NFL bigwigs in a grassy knoll overlooking Ford Field pulling strings to ensure a warm, fuzzy ending to their heartwarming Jerome Bettis story; rather a case of the sloppy enforcement of rules that has plagued the NFL this entire playoff season. Unfortunately for Seattle (and anyone who may have wanted to see a fair game), this sloppy officiating came on the biggest stage.

Exactly what can be done about the problem of a few men regulating a fast, complicated game played by some of the best athletes in the world is the question. Undoubtedly the league will strive to address this problem in the offseason. For the Seattle Seahawks and their fans, however, that will be small consolation.