Want whine with that, Mark?

We're a nation of second-guessers and complainers in addition to being obese and generally frivolous.

As an example, the Seattle Seahawks lost in the Super Bowl and Mike Holmgren was gracious enough to blame the officials for most of their shortcomings that evening. Holmgren failed to mention his shoddy clock-management at the end of both halfs, Jerramy Stevens' cast-iron hands and kicker Josh Brown's case of the yips.

It was all on the officials, OK? The Seahaws were jobbed.

Right.

Now we have all this hubbub around the foul that sent Dwyane Wade to the free-throw line for the game-winning shots with 1.9 seconds left in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, and led to the Mavs' inexplicable decision to call a timeout after Wade's first shot.

The Mavericks went nuts after the game, from the top on down. Mark Cuban, Avery Johnson, Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard would accept no fault for their defeat. They blamed it all on the refs. Apparently, to guys like Cuban and the normally sensible Scott, Wade would have needed an autopsy to get the line that late in the game.

Um, just once I'd like to hear Cuban and other folks complain about officiating after a win. Just suck it up and say, "We pulled this out only because Joey Crawford really wanted us to have this one." Then those complaints would be more authentic to me. Most men doth protest too much.

So do most of us, I guess. I'm still steaming over that blown TD call in the Houston Oilers' loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1979 AFC Championship Game.

Ooh...the Steelers again. It must be a conspiracy.