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Anyone who saw the game knew it at the time, even as the NFL, the network suits, and the people of Pittsburgh tried to claim otherwise.

The Seattle Seahawks easily defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers back in 2006. The game wasn't even that close.

But they couldn't beat the referees that day and so the Steelers, unjustly or not, were allowed to raise the Lombardi Trophy and claim their fifth Super Bowl title.

Back then there were a lot of rumors about why it happened. Everything from the league owners wanting to give one of the world's richest men his comeuppance, to the powers that be in the NFL felt they owed it to the Rooney family.

Now Bill Leavy, the head referee of the game is just plain saying he screwed up and didn't totally understand the rules of the game.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/08/06/four-years-later-bill-leavy-apologizes-to-seahawks/

I'm not sure why Leavy is coming out with this now.

Did he get clean and sober?

Is he writing a book?

Leavy said yesterday it's just something he wants to get off his chest.

As for the Steelers fans this is a disaster. They've long been defensive about what happened in 2006. That's why I believe a lot of these fans were so ecstatic back in 2009 when their team knocked off the Arizona Cardinals. It gave the city's fans a victory they could be proud of, without the taint of so many fans feeling they were a bunch of frauds.

Now they have to face all those questions again, at a time when their starting QB from both of those victories is getting serious questions about his off field behavior and dedication to the game.

I'm not sure if it will make Seattle fans feel better. It's hard enough to live with the gnawing feeling that your team might have gotten screwed out of the biggest title in sports.

It may be even worse to know that it's true.

Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about Levy's statements. I grew up in Seattle and to be quite honest, I had friends from Los Angeles who were more upset about what happened in 2006.

When you grow up in the Pacific Northwest you expect to be screwed on the playing field. East Coast bias is something you take for granted growing up in the West.

To be honest I was more upset the way the NCAA refs handed Connecticut a gift win over the Brandon Roy led University of Washington basketball team later that spring.

Now that was a real crime.

The Seahawks getting robbed in the Super Bowl. That was to be expected.

Now here we are on the eve of the 2010 NFL season. The man who who reffed the 2006 Super Bowl says the Seahawks got jobbed.

I'm not sure we needed to know all of this. The NFL isn't going go back and change the outcome.

So, why bring it all up again.

It's just going to make fans in both cities feel bad about something they had to put behind them.