Jim Harbaugh Blasts Officials for Non-Call at End of Super Bowl

The San Francisco 49ers are still reeling from losing the biggest game of their lives, but many of their fans and players are under the assumption that they were robbed. On the final offensive play of the game for the 49ers, the officials on the field failed to call what looked to be a pretty obvious defensive pass interference call or at the very least a defensive holding penalty in the endzone.

Niners head coach Jim Harbaugh was seen visibly angry at the call and is still protesting what he felt should have been a penalty that could have changed the game.

“They competed to win,” Harbaugh said. “But there’s no question in my mind that there was a pass interference — and then a hold on Crabtree on the last one.”

Harbaugh insisted he wasn’t trying to take anything away from the Ravens and wanted to reiterate that he’s classy (pause for laughter), but couldn’t help but point out he was basically screwed out of a Super Bowl.

“I really want to handle this with class and grace, and we had several opportunities in this game,” said Harbaugh, who also claimed that Baltimore committed a pass interference penalty against Crabtree on second-and-goal. “We didn’t play our best game, and the Ravens made a lot of plays and battled back.”

Former head of officiating and FOX NFL contributor Mike Pereira said that the call was no doubt a tough one to make, but agreed that the correct one was made.

To be completely honest, what was Pereira supposed to say? If he criticized the call, not only would he have given credit to the theory that the Ravens Super Bowl win wasn’t legitimate, he’d also be known as the referee who blamed a call on the referees in the biggest game of the NFL year.

Also, is there really any other way we saw Jim Harbaugh handling a Super Bowl loss other than to blame the referees. He’s got merit, since the non-call was unbelievably questionable, but at some point you just have to suck it up and move on. But in true Harbaugh fashion, he claimed to merely be making an observation and not a critique.

“I realize I’m on the side of the 49ers,” he said. “I’m the coach of the 49ers — there is some bias there. But I wouldn’t be bringing it up unless it was obvious. But that’s not the way (the refs) saw it. That’s the only reason I bring it up.”