REPLAYS PROVIDE ONLY SATISFACTION.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

Leave it to Chris Berman to attempt to put the punctuation on Sunday's Super Bowl XL telecast.

``Well, the Rolling Stones sang it, 'I can't get no satisfaction,' '' the man called Boomer bellowed from his chair on the ABC studio set inside Detroit's Ford Field after all the confetti fell on Steelers' 21-10 victory celebration over the Seahawks.

Then, pointing his chubby finger at the camera, he concluded the thought: ``I don't think that was the case in Pittsburgh, Pa.''

Uh, well, hmmm. OK.

So, what about any satisfaction in Seattle, Wash.?

A couple of key instant replays from ABC's camera arsenal seemed to provide enough evidence to overturn at least two referees' calls on the field - plays that went against the Seahawks and resulted in a 14-point swing - and will likely be what is etched in the minds of viewers who rode the uneven telecast of what could be the last whiff of the NFC-AFC championship game that this network ever gets.

The first controversy, with two minutes left in the first quarter, seemed to dispute an offensive pass interference call against Seattle's Darrell Jackson, who caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from Matt Hasselbeck but was flagged for pushing off with his right hand against Steelers safety Chris Hope.

As the ABC replays showed the pass route several times, analyst John Madden said immediately: ``When you think of pushoffs, that's not what you think about, really.''

At halftime, ABC studio analyst Steve Young was a more emphatic: ``That is a touchdown ... that is an absolute mistake.'' Added Michael Irvin: ``It was a ticky-tack foul.''

Was the play reviewable by the replay officials? No, but neither Madden nor play-by-play man Al Michaels informed the audience of that.

The more debatable camera-aided play came with two minutes left in the half, on a third-and-goal for Pittsburgh from the 2-yard line with Seattle ahead, 3-0.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger rolled to his left and dove for the goal line. Michaels immediately said that Seattle coach Mike Holmgren could challenge that play, but then corrected himself because in the last two minutes of the half, it is up to the replay officials to make the call.

Neither Michaels nor Madden would commit to the play being called incorrectly, but an ABC graphic pretty much ended any speculation about whether it would be reversed as it pointed out that referee Bill Leavy had the lowest rate of overturned calls on coaches challenges - 23 percent - among NFL referees over the last three seasons. The play stood.

``This is a tough call,'' Michaels conceded.

``But is the evidence clear?'' Madden stammered on.

Well, do you think?

It was obvious to Holmgren at halftime as he was leaving the field and cameras caught him arguing with the officials. Sideline reporter Suzy Kober asked him about the confusion of offensive playcalling by the Seahawks just before the half, but Holmgren decided to explain to her that ``they were telling me upstairs that the ball didn't cross the line for the touchdown and they're telling me it did on the replay.''

--Stronger statements: Michaels and Madden were a bit harsher on the Seahawks for the way they ended the first half and then set the stage for viewers on how they thought the team would handle trying to score a field goal and touchdown to at least attempt to tie the contest in the closing minutes.

But after Seattle's offense stalled before halftime, and they didn't kick a field goal in the closing seconds to set up an onsides kick at the end of the game, Michaels finally exclaimed: ``The first half was a mess at the end (and) the end of this drive was a mess.''

--The long farewell? Michaels and Madden, who could either have seen the curtain fall on their partnership or set the groundwork for it to continue over at NBC with the new Sunday night package this fall, stayed away from any kind of smaltzy goodbye at the end.

Michaels offered his hand to Madden and said: ``Hall of Famer, the pleasure has been mine.'' To which Madden, surprisingly caught a little speechless, replied: ``It's all mine, Al. Thanks for everything.''

--The endless pregame: With ESPN (six hours), the NFL Network (5 1/2 hours) and ABC (3 1/2 hours) cranking out gobs of appetizers before the main course, it became sort of an exercise in hopscotch for the viewers to keep up with everything on the buffet table.

Kudos to ESPN's Kenny Mayne for getting through a tongue-in-cheek segment with Martha Stewart on the proper way to get every organic tortilla chip covered with enough refried beans, olives, peppers and cheese.

But of the three, the NFL Network, which was producing its first extended Super Bowl pregame show, came out smelling best.

It was the NFL Network's more low-key, kind of C-SPAN approach that lent itself to longer-produced features, creating a far less polluted, less star-struck presentation. Most revealing was a piece by NFL Films' Steve Sabol on Steelers coach Bill Cower and his family, while Jennifer Allen sat down with Steelers owner Dan Rooney to discuss his philosophy.

Meanwhile, over on ESPN's set, there was Stuart Scott screaming out before a commercial break: ``We've got 2 1/2 hours to go on 'Countdown.' If you move, we'll rip our cable out.''

Thanks for the warning. And a reason to look for the remote.

--Historical footnote: Kolber, who came into the ABC broadcast from her work on ESPN's ``Sunday Night Football,'' and ABC's Michelle Tafoya became the first female twosome to have the sideline assignments on a Super Bowl telecast.

--Halftime hijinx: Most viewers probably didn't even know that two sexually explicit lyrics were bleeped out by the NFL and its halftime production staff from the Rolling Stones' three-song set.

In ``Start Me Up,'' a reference to a woman's sexual sway over a dead man was taken out during the five-second delayed broadcast. The next song, ``Rough Justice,'' included a word that can be best called a synonym for a rooster that was bleeped.

``Satisfaction,'' which the Stones finished with, is indeed a song famous about sexual frustration, but the content was apparently clean enough to air without incident, and then be referred to by Berman and others during the second half of ABC's telecast.