Green Bay Packers Super Bowl Destiny Forged By One Bad Call in Tampa

The Green Bay Packers celebrate today as proud Super Bowl XLV champions. They played and won as the team destined to win the Lombardi Trophy.

But it all might have been different.  That difference goes back to one very important call, a call made in week 15 of the NFL season.

It goes back to a call the NFL would later apologize for: a call that cost the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a victory over the lowly Detroit Lions.

Consider this for a moment, if you will.

The Lions were leading the Bucs late in the fourth quarter at Raymond James Stadium, 20-17. The Bucs put together an drive and it looked like they'd go on top 24-20 when Josh Freeman hit Kellen Winslow Jr. with a touchdown pass.

Then there was that flag. That flag. An official flagged Winslow for offensive pass interference when it looked like a clean play. The Bucs settled for a field goal, and with the game tied 20-20, regulation ended.  The Lions would go on to win, 23-20, in overtime.

It shouldn't have been.  Later that same week, the Bucs received one of those awful mea culpa, our official got it wrong letters from the NFL.  It was an apology too late to change.

Had the call gone correctly, Tampa may have won 24-20, may have finished 11-5—and the Green Bay Packers would have been bumped out of the second wild card berth.

It was known as the game that cost Tampa Bay a shot at the playoffs.

Now it might be the call that opened destiny's door for the Green Bay Packers.

The Packers went on a roll, winning it all as a sixth seed from the playoffs.  Now, they'll hoist the Lombardi Trophy and tote it back to Green Bay.

When the celebrations are over, when the conversations go back to the 2010 season, remember the call: the call in Tampa. The wrong call in Tampa.

It was wrong for the Buccaneers and so very right for Green Bay.

Destiny works in strange ways, so very often. 

Doesn't it?