SUPER BOWL EXTRA LARGE

http://www.seahawks.com/ConFiles/Con4161/Squad03_535.jpg

xpost

what?!?! guess we're not watching the same games or something.

So Steelers, Giants, who else doesn't deem the girls worth the field???

Green Bay also does the "real" cheerleader unis things. Jimmy Mod and I discussed once how that's actually more pervy than the "traditional" Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders rip off gear.

so yeah, like laurence said .. they used to have high-school baton twirlers that would go into each end-zone during time-outs and twirl away ... I don't even think they have that anymore at Ford Field.

Watching Joe Buck and Troy Aikman stand there in front of the FOX logo during the Seattle game made me think, "Hell, they could be in Burbank for all I know."

And ever since Peter Jennings freaked me out at one of the political conventions by turning off the arena crowd and showing the blue weatherman wall behind him, I don't trust any of those fuckers anymore.

Report: Colts Poised For Biggest Upset In Super Bowl History

DETROIT—Coaches, front-office executives, and players around the NFL all agree that an Indianapolis victory in Detroit next Sunday would result in the greatest underdog story in Super Bowl history, if not in all of sports. "After losing to Pittsburgh in the second round of the playoffs, for the Colts to come into Detroit and beat them—as well as the Panthers, their nominal opponent—that would almost certainly be the comeback of the century," said Bills general manager Marv Levy. "No one would ever dare say that Manning or Dungy couldn't win the big one after that. Yes, it's a long shot—the longest—but with the Steelers and Carolina concentrating on beating each other, Indy is perfectly poised to come from literally out of nowhere to complete their all-time greatest triumph." At press time, no member of the Colts would comment on the possibility of a Super Bowl victory, further fueling speculation of a colossal upset in the making.

I am also in the "need some" market as well - any eager Eaglets out there on the prowl for some IT meat, please drive up I-95 to my palatial estate, and I will romance you w/ some hott comic book chat and Arizona Green Tea.

Hello.

YOU: ON YOUR OWN 17 YD LINE, THROWING A FOOTBALL, WEARING #10. YOU GOT INTERCEPTED BY A REDSKIN AND I FELT REAL BAD FOR YOU.

ME: GIRL IN SECT 113, ROW 12, KIND OF GETTING A BIT SICK AFTER HALFTIME, RED HAIR.

I REALLY LIKED U. IF U SAW ME U SHOULD EMAIL ME! LIKE, GET SOME COFFEE TOGETHER?? OK.

DETROIT -- I'm writing this as I travel to my 31st consecutive Super Bowl.

This has always been my second favorite sports event -- The Masters wins by a single blade of Augusta National grass. But this year, the Super Bowl is beginning to feel like the Indy 500 without Danica.

Super Bowl XL is anything but Extra Large. For most fans who aren't Seahawks or Steelers fans, this matchup seems like it should be returned and exchanged.

If you love your Seahawks or your Steelers, please quit reading now. This isn't for you. This is for everyone else out there who is trying -- and trying -- to get excited about the NFL's showcase game. I sense less buzz about this Super Bowl than any I've attended. If any Roman-numeral game has ever deserved only one week of buildup, it was this one.

Super Bowl life ends at 40?

While Seahawks fans are sleepless in Seattle, media members are sleepy in Detroit. Somehow, the Seahawks and Steelers in Detroit seems like a consolation game. After three sensational weekends of playoffs, this is an anticlimax. Now we're paying the price for all those upsets.

How can these teams ever generate enough star power to live up to the telecast's Oscar-worthy commercials?

No Peyton or Brady or Vick or buzz.

No rivalry or bad blood or controversy or buzz.

Only zzz.

These Super Bowl highlights shouldn't be immortalized by the towering tones of John Facenda. Shelley Duval should narrate: "Once upon a time, there were two teams..."

The problem here is that, for the first time, the Super Bowl features two underdogs, two Cinderellas, two teams that came from nowhere on destiny-kissed rolls. One underdog can make for a can't-put-it-down script -- see some kid named Brady vs. Kurt Warner's "unstoppable" St. Louis Rams four years ago. But though this year's point spread is Pittsburgh by 4½, this feels like a game without a favorite.

The Steelers, the first sixth seed to make it to the Super Bowl, barely made the playoffs thanks to a fairly easy closing schedule. They beat Kyle Orton's Bears in a snowstorm in Pittsburgh, then took care of Minnesota, Cleveland and Detroit.

But would they have won their first playoff game, in Cincinnati, if Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer hadn't been hurt on his second play? Doubtful. Would they have finished off the season's most shocking upset, in Indianapolis, if Colts cornerback Nick Harper hadn't weaved back into a sprawling ankle tackle by Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger? No. Would the Steelers have been able to win in Foxborough if the Broncos hadn't upset the Patriots the week before in Denver? Highly doubtful. Would the Steelers have won in Denver if an early poor pass by Roethlisberger had been picked off in the flat by Champ Bailey and returned for a stadium-rocking touchdown? Probably not.

And now the AFC's sixth seed is favored over the NFC's top seed? This feels like a moderately interesting, Week 9 nonconference game.

Would the Seahawks have risen from 2-2 to home-field playoff advantage if Terrell Owens hadn't torn apart the Eagles? If Michael Vick hadn't regressed? If the Giants, Redskins and Cowboys hadn't been forced to do battle twice in the East and the Panthers, Bucs and Falcons hadn't beaten each other up in the South?

Things just kept breaking right for the Seahawks. Without bye weeks, the Redskins and Panthers were banged up before playoff games in Seattle -- where the Seahawks' 12th Man gives them the NFL's loudest and strongest home-field advantage.

Now we should write odes to a team whose MVP just might have been its fans? Who won't be much of a factor in Detroit?

A year ago, we had enough subplots to last us three weeks. We had the Belichick-Brady dynasty vs. the T.O.-McNabb Eagles. Would Owens' ankle and fibula miraculously heal in time for the game? Would Patriots enforcer Rodney Harrison separate Freddie Mitchell's head from his body after FredEx couldn't even remember his name?

I can't believe I'm writing this, but I'm starting to miss T.O.

This is a game without an established superstar -- unless you count Seattle left tackle Walter Jones, the lone cinch Hall of Famer. Pittsburgh's Jerome Bettis is not -- not after never leading his league in rushing and never having transcendent postseason impact. Bettis, a six-time Pro Bowl player, has been very good. Not great.

Bettis' returning to his hometown to play in his first Super Bowl in what probably is his final game is a nice story. But that doesn't make him Jim Brown or Walter Payton or O.J. Simpson or Emmitt Smith.

As much as I respect the Rooney family, I couldn't help chuckling the other day when Steelers owner Dan Rooney compared this team to the Terry Bradshaw team that won its first of four Super Bowls. Come on. That team had nine future Hall of Famers -- Bradshaw at that point being the least likely candidate.

Best case, this Steelers team has three candidates -- Bettis, Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu.

Roethlisberger has the best chance of becoming this game's breakout Madison Avenue star. But as good as he is in his second season, it's laughable to hear angle-starved commentators already reaching to compare him with a young Marino or Elway. Calm down. Roethlisberger doesn't have Marino's trigger or Elway's mobility or either one's velocity. First let's see if Big Ben can beat the Seahawks.

Strictly from a football standpoint, this matchup is pretty intriguing. You have two pretty good, very hot teams that didn't play each other. Will the Seahawks be able to stand up to the spotlight and play as fast and furiously as they did at home? Will the "new" Steelers continue to be pass-first?

Whoops, another puncture in our Super Bowl balloon. The black-jerseyed, mud-and-blood Steelers often abandoned their running game early in their playoff road wins and opened up the offense and even resorted to trick plays. Though they're the Super Bowl home team, they've chosen to wear their white road jerseys. Now we don't even have a vaunted bully.

We have two very likable teams and coaches. We have Steelers coach Bill Cowher doing what a desperate, couldn't-win-the-big-one Mack Brown did at Texas -- backing off, loosening up, letting his young quarterback throw the ball. We have Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, slipping off an early-season hot seat and now admitting he was beginning to doubt his ability.

You can't wait for Sunday, can you.

That's why I'm rooting for Steelers linebacker Joey Porter. Not in Sunday's game, but during Tuesday's media day. Porter is the only player on either team whose mouth is big enough to launch this game back into watercooler America's consciousness.

Please, Joey, say: "It's hard to get excited about playing the Seahawks. They wouldn't have made the playoffs in the AFC."

Please say: "Matt Hasselbeck has a lot of Jake Plummer in him. He rattles in big games."

Please say: "I guarantee we'll win by three touchdowns."

You're our only hope, Joey. Don't let us down.

Monday, 1:54 p.m. ET
Something that's becoming clear (and perhaps predictably so) is the ferocity with which the NFL aspires to promote the concept of the Super Bowl, a goal that requires everyone involved (including you) to embrace a specific philosophical contradiction: On one hand, we are supposed to view Sunday's game as the most significant conflict since the Tet offensive, because only a game of that magnitude could warrant such an ostentatious display of hyper-accelerated Americanism; at the same time, we are forced to concede that the game itself is fundamentally meaningless, since nothing this mammoth and transcendent could possibly hinge on something as trivial as Hines Ward's proficiency at running the corner post. It's the kind of circular logic that drives the Patriot Act: This singular game is so important that it's (obviously) more important than any single game.

Here's (sort of) an example: There is a lot of Super Bowl merchandise available in this Renaissance Center, and throughout the city as a whole. This, obviously, is neither surprising nor problematic. But here's what always baffles me: Why would anyone buy a T-shirt (or a hat, or an ascot, or a waterproof matador cape) that merely promotes "Super Bowl XL"? An inordinate percentage of the available items in the Renaissance Center's gift kiosks do not feature the logos of the Seahawks or the Steelers; they generically advertise the abstract existence of a football game. This would be like going to see Marilyn Manson at Madison Square Garden and buying a $22 T-shirt that said, "THEATRICAL, DRUG-FUELED ROCK CONCERT." It reminds me of the nonspecific commercials TV networks like NBC run that promote the channel itself, almost as if they assume there are actually people who privately think, "I have no idea what's on television right now, but I better check NBC first. I get the impression they're especially confident about the quality of their current programming."

And yet ... I suppose all of this nondenominational Super Stuff inadvertently defines the aforementioned concept of the Super Bowl, unquestionably the most bipartisan athletic affair in modern culture. At every sporting event, there is a percentage of the audience who does not care who wins and who loses; the Super Bowl is probably the only major sporting event where this is true for the majority of its audience. Twenty minutes ago, I ran into a reporter named B.J. Reyes, a newspaper reporter from Hawaii who's working on a freelance story for That's Guangzhou magazine, an English language publication in China. Football is (apparently) growing in popularity over there, especially as a youth sport (although they don't play tackle, for some reason -- it's all flag). Weirdly, Philadelphia Eagle tight end Chad Lewis is the face of the NFL for the people of China. Lewis attended BYU (and because he subsequently did a Mormon missionary in Taiwan), he speaks Cantonese fluently. Consequently, Lewis has become the gridiron's Far East ambassador; when the Super Bowl was first broadcast in China, he simultaneously delivered both the play-by-play and the color commentary. Within the world's strongest socialist regime, Chad Lewis is Brent Musburger.

Reyes told me that -- for the third year in a row -- the Super Bowl is scheduled to be televised in Guangzhou on a one-hour delay, which means it's essentially live, but it's on the air at something like 7 a.m. I'm guessing the game will be watched by one percent of the local populace, which (though I could be wrong) is approximately 67 billion people. And I'm sure these people won't care what happens. But perhaps they'll understand the concept, even if I do not.

Monday, 10:23 a.m. ET
DETROIT -- I am currently typing in ESPN's Detroit command center, which essentially means I am on the 18th floor of a very confusing building that is (apparently) supposed to signify the city's renaissance, inasmuch as the facility is actively called The Renaissance Center. This is a universe without corners; The Renaissance Center is essentially four cylindrical skyscrapers that provide no sense of geometric order. I keep hoping to bump into Ron Jaworski; I have no doubt he could enthusiastically explain the logic of this structure, as well as detailing what I should do if I step out of an elevator and everyone in the food court has dropped into Cover 2.

It's oddly quiet here on the 18th floor; there are about 14 dudes in one room and all of them are staring at laptop computers. Two people are talking about Brett Favre's possible retirement, and I occasionally hear John Clayton's dulcet voice mention something abstract about free agency. Everyone is understated; somehow, I anticipated more physicality. Thus far, I have exchanged a playful forearm shiver with absolutely no one.

There is apparently an ESPN "Global Planning Meeting" at 11 a.m.; there are several sheets of paper on the walls proclaiming this event. I suspect this meeting will be where ESPN (a) plots how to cover the Super Bowl and (b) decides how it will respond to the Palestinian elections (I say we play hard to get). It's weird being here, because everybody knows each other, and I don't know anyone, and everyone has work to do, and I have nothing to offer; all I can really do is look at the Internet and check the results from the SAG awards. I see that the big winner was "Crash," a movie designed for people in Los Angeles who just figured out that racism was "complex" (and must therefore be secretly central to every conversation any two Americans ever have). I wish one of the bears from "Grizzly Man" would eat Matt Dillon and Ludacris.

In other news, an intriguing dynamic is beginning to emerge within the hearts and minds of the Motor City. The local Detroit media appear obsessed with two diametrically opposed scenarios: The first is that Super Bowl XL is going to prove their community is a vibrant, dynamic metropolis with limitless resources and underrated energy; the second is that hosting this Super Bowl will prompt everyone in the national media to mercilessly criticize the totality of the metro area at every possible opportunity.

Detroit is like a 16-year-old girl who just paid $110 for the haircut she always wanted, but now she's driving to school and checking herself in the rearview mirror, and she's starting to suspect that she looks a little like Tawny Kitaen on the cover of "Out of the Cellar." Kids can be cruel, rockers.

Sunday, 11:30 p.m. ET
Here is a true story about Detroit that happened to somebody who isn't me: A man employed at one of the city's two major newspapers exited his downtown Detroit office to go home and drink a glass of wine; he worked the late shift, so it was already around midnight. The journalist adjusted his glasses and chatted on his cellular telephone, briskly striding down the sidewalk toward the company parking lot.

Suddenly, an unknown car pulled up beside the journalist, screeching to a halt; a large gentleman emerged from behind its steering wheel. This unknown gentleman walked over to the newspaperman and wordlessly punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. "Get up," said the puncher. "Get up!" The newspaperman did not get up, as he suspected following these directions would result in more face punching. "Get up," the unknown assailant repeated. "Get up! You know what this is about! You know what this is about!"
The puncher kept making demands, but the victim's terror slowly morphed into mild confusion; to the best of his recollection, he had done nothing to warrant an unannounced pummeling.

"I think you have the wrong guy," he said, still crouching on the Michigan pavement. "I've never seen you before. I was just walking to my car. You are hitting the wrong guy." The journalist peered up at his attacker; the attacker looked down at his victim's face. It immediately became clear the puncher was, in fact, punching the wrong dude. Obviously, this was an awkward situation. The puncher uttered an expletive, returned to this vehicle, and fled the scene. The newspaperman found his cell phone, readjusted his glasses, and found himself oddly unsurprised by the event that had transpired. This, after all, was his hometown.

It's great to be in Detroit.

When ESPN asked me to cover Super Bowl XL, I was hesitant. I have a lot on my plate these days: I'm developing a sitcom for UPN about Antonio Davis' wife (it is tentatively titled "Oh No You Did Not Just Use The Metric System!" and is slated to star Wanda Sykes). I'm also trying to reenergize the tourist economy of New Orleans with "unconventional" humanitarian Anna Benson (she's like a cross between Thomas Paine and Albert Schweitzer, plus a killer rack). I enjoy watching football, but I also enjoy contributing to the actualization of society; in gambling terminology, this is what we refer to as a push. However, I eventually came to my senses: I simply could not pass up the chance to spend a week in hyper-sexy Detroit (the so-called "Houston of the North") in order to hear 140,000 sportswriters explain why Jerome Bettis is a class act.

The Super Bowl represents different things to different people. To some, it is akin to a secular holiday -- a drunken, three-hour Christmas for those who hate Jesus. To others, it is simply the annual matchup between the finest pro football team in the American Conference and the finest pro football team in the National Conference; mysteriously, that is not the case this season, as both teams are from the AFC.

But regardless of how you feel, one question demands consideration: What does the Super Bowl mean to me? What does the Super Bowl represent to Chuck Klosterman, a random writer you have never met and (in all likelihood) have never even heard of? That is the quandary that has America talking. And that is the quandary I will attempt to answer through this sporadically updated weblog, a process Arctic Monkeys fans like to call "blogging."

I have never "blogged" before, and people sometimes ask me why I do not have a "blog." The short answer is: "For pretty much the same reason I don't own a dog." If you're interested in the long answer as to why I do not "blog," you will have to read my blog, located at whyidonothaveablog@blogspot.gov (please leave comments and trackbacks!). As you might anticipate, I'm rather stoked about this new venture, as it will allow me to do the following "blog-o-centric" things:

Create useless slang for retarded hipsters.

Link to 70-track collections of Paul Stanley stage banter.

Post semi-nude photos of a young Cloris Leachman.

I guarantee this will be the greatest one-week sports blog ever written, or at least the best one since Jacqueline Susann's unforgettable blogging of the 1967 Ice Bowl. If this is not the best sports blog you have ever read, I will personally drive to your home, clean your garage, wash your car, shingle your doghouse with pancakes, and blow up your children with dynamite. That is my guarantee.

I shall not Vander-jack this opportunity; like Kobe against the Raptors, I am Napoleon Solo (i.e., unstoppable one-on-one). So, wassup, rockers? Do you (metaphorically) feel me? It's time we all embrace a little game I like to call North American football. It's time to make keen references to Shaun Alexander's addled skull. It's time to get punched by random strangers. This is Super Bowl XL. And I am ready.

he tries to front like he's this massive football fan or something. dude, if you are a football fan, you are excited about the Super Bowl. period. the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl. He's just pissed because he actually has to try to think about something to write about -- o no! column doesn't write itself -- and so failing that, he just writes about how he can't think of anything to write about.

So proud that Chicago ran him out of town. everyone in this town threw a party when he took his ball and left.

Ha ha ha holy fuck WHAT DOES THIS EVEN MEAN. Would the Steelers have won all their playoff games if the other teams outscored them? Highly improbable!!

can we just rename this forum 'skip bayless - whatta cocksucker'

Pittsburgh has ran a trick play in every game of Cowher's coaching career for heaven's sake.

Hahaha like Marino beat the Niners??

also, klosterman should be marked for death.

Ward to Honor Devoted Mom With Trip Home
By ALAN ROBINSON, AP Sports WriterTue Jan 31, 4:05 AM ET

Hines Ward is taking the trip of an NFL player's lifetime to the Super Bowl. It's the visit he's wanted to make since first playing youth football in Atlanta and, because of two AFC championship game losses, one he feared he might never achieve.

As much as reaching Detroit means to the Pittsburgh Steelers' four-time Pro Bowl receiver, the journey he takes in April will be equally significant for a much different reason.

For the first time in his adult life, Ward is traveling back to South Korea. One of the few Asian-heritage stars in NFL history, he's planning a two-week vacation there accompanied by the mother, Kim Young-hee, who came to America in the 1970s to be with her GI husband.

To the 29-year-old Ward, traveling to a country where the NFL is barely known represents much more than a chance to do some sightseeing, to be introduced to a culture he has been told about but has never seen in person.

This is about saying thanks to a mother who didn't know English when she moved to the United States, but knew of things far more important: the value of trust, honesty, hard work, loyalty.

And, most of all, of love.

"My mom is why I'm here today," Ward said Monday, shortly after the Steelers arrived in Detroit. "My mom worked her tail off for me. She taught me how important it is to work hard. I'm not here if it's not for my mom."

Even if, Ward said, smiling, "She's a nervous wreck this week."

Ward, the Steelers' record holder with 574 career catches, never needs much provocation to become teary-eyed. Teammates still kid him about breaking down last year because he was upset Jerome Bettis might retire without playing in a Super Bowl.

To really bring out the emotions in Ward, one needs only to mention his mother. Ward invariably gets misty-eyed talking about her, as if he can't believe how lucky someone could be to have a mother like his.

"She means everything to me," Ward said.

Kim Young-hee must feel the same way about her son.

Shortly after coming to the United States, she and her husband divorced, leaving her in a country whose culture and language she didn't understand, and with a young son and no way to support him.

Then it got worse.

According to Ward, a court determined she could not suitably raise Hines without being able to speak English or hold a job. As a result, Ward's father and a new stepmother were awarded custody of Hines. It was a devastating blow to Ward's mother, who could have been forgiven for giving up and moving back home to Korea.

Remarkably, she didn't. And when Hines was in the second grade, he ran away from his father and returned to the mother he had never forgotten, and never left again until he went to Georgia to play football.

To raise Hines, Kim Young-hee often worked three jobs nearly around the clock, taking breaks only to sleep for a few hours and to go home to get her son up in the morning and make sure he had dinner.

She washed dishes, cleaned hotel rooms, worked as a cashier. Nothing was for her — her only concern was making sure her son had clean clothes, food and the best home life she could provide, even if it wasn't a high-income lifestyle.

Ward didn't have a father to lean on — he says he has no communication with him today — but he did have direction. Even as his football career took off at Forest Park High near Atlanta, his mother made him concentrate on academics, and Ward received excellent grades.

His mother also taught him about the importance of a work ethic — lessons he took to the football field where, out of necessity, he played wide receiver, quarterback and running back in college. (A long-forgotten stat: As a quarterback, Ward passed for 413 yards and ran for 56 yards in the Peach Bowl.)

When Ward came to the NFL as a third-round draft pick in 1998 but, in essence, a man without a position, he threw himself into his work. Determined to create a role for himself, he quickly became the NFL's best blocking wide receiver, helping him earn playing time until he became a starter a year later.

Ward's background may explain why he often plays with an edge uncommon for a skill position player. And, perhaps, why his mother kept working her school cafeteria job even after Ward signed his first million-dollar NFL contract.

"My mom never gave up," Ward said. "She did everything she could for me, worked three jobs. She worked her tail off."

Ward's name in Korean is tattooed on his upper right forearm, directly above a smiling Mighty Mouse carrying a football. The smile, he said, reflects how he plays: with ferocity, a will to win but also for fun, another lesson learned from his mother.

"I could never pay my mother back for what she did for me," Ward said.

v

http://www.wlup.com/Pics/zakk/misc/kyle_orton_02.jpg

v

http://www.thebluehen.com/14/00043678.jpg

This has just increased my anticipated alcohol intake 3x

of course now i'm pissed that the pregame is on at the same time as the PUPPY BOWL. FUCK U PUPPIES.

PALOMALU

INJURED

HIS

ANKLE

!!!

Free Mumia

Burger King: 3/10
FedEx/Dinosaurs: 7
Bud Light/Bear: 3

Kermit should not schill for cars.

(an aside: the last two halftime shows have been british)

also: seattle gettign jobbed buyt who cares

also: i've had a vew beders

*okay, mostly

also:

Steelers by 11, and I don't need my lucky quarter to tell me.

Best NFL International Feed moment: "that looked more like a scrum! A lot of you will be familiar with that, of course, because of European Football, soccer." (also the uk-specific announcer not knowing how many points a touchdown was worth was pretty classic.)

xpost - greg, that was a non-challengeable play.

PS - I am still a little blotto, but clearly not blotto enough, damn it.

I didn't think the reffing was that egregious -- I initally thought Ben didn't make it, but you know what- after watching a couple replays I really do think that nose got in there before he was brought down. similarly, at first I thought that PI call on DJ was total BS -- but you know what, after looking again I think he uses enough force with that arm that the Pitt defender is kind of "out of the play", you know? Sure it's total puss for that to even be the rule -- but hey, that's today's NFL, and if that IS the rule, then ya gotta enforce it ... it was close enough to be a "hey waitaminute" play to throw the flag I guess. If Seattle wanted to win they should have cut down on the 75 yard TD runs, it's a simple as that

Fact.

fact.

By Robert Dvorchak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Steeler fan Albert Holm, from Mexico City, gives a mean look while getting his photo taken in the Steeler cutout at NFL Experience in Detroit.
Click photo for larger image.

DETROIT -- Brothers Noel and Morgan Burbridge, clad in their subdued green and blue Seahawks gear, arrived at 4 a.m. yesterday on a red-eye flight from Seattle and felt like they had walked smack into the enemy camp.

"I feel as though we are alone," said Noel, 31, looking out over the wave of black and gold that has inundated Detroit on the eve of Super Bowl XL. "It's like we're on an island surrounded by sharks. We're out-numbered 700 to 1."

If raw numbers of fans provide any barometer, Pittsburgh has exerted its dominance. Spirited members of the far-flung Steeler Nation who made the pilgrimage here to experience football's grandest theater seem to be everywhere. Seahawks fan might as well be part of the background.

Even the weather has taken a Pittsburgh shift. Yesterday morning dawned gray and gloomy with a blanket of fog that made Seattle denizens feel right at home. But my mid-day, a steady rain had turned to snow -- Steeler weather.

Eight inches of the white stuff is expected to be on the ground this morning. It won't affect the game, which will be played indoors in the cozy surroundings of Ford Field. But a city that has toiled mightily to be a good host for America's party had to implement emergency plans because of the winter storm. Salt trucks and snow plows were on standby to deal with the accumulation, and the plan called for city crews to truck the white stuff to a landfill in Windsor, Ontario, to keep streets open for the big game.

A different sort of blizzard has already descended on Motown. Tens of thousands of Steelers fans, waving towels and chanting songs, have taken over the streets and bars of Detroit and its suburbs.

The migration peaked on Friday when the Ohio Turnpike was nearly bumper to bumper with cars, trucks, vans and bus loads in one long convoy headed to Detroit.

"They were blaring their horns, waving their flags, twirling their towels. I've never seen anything like it. It looked like an invasion," said Susan Anderson of Green Tree.

She and her husband, Carl, have been season-ticket holders for 38 years but couldn't score tickets to the Super Bowl. (The asking price for a ticket listed at $700 topped $3,000 yesterday, and isn't expected to fall. Seattle fans had issued a plea not to sell their tickets to anyone from Pittsburgh.)

But the Andersons didn't think twice about making the five-hour drive and paying $159 a night for a room at a Red Roof Inn in suburban Livonia. It didn't matter that they'll be outside the perimeter. It didn't matter that the weather was bad. It didn't matter that the game was in Detroit. All that mattered was the Steelers were in the Super Bowl.

"We just wanted to soak it all in," said Anderson, 70. "I wanted to get a flavor of it."

So many Steelers fans have made the trek that the Seattle contingent is wondering what ever happened to neutrality.

Joel Bearce, 42, checked into his hotel in Ann Arbor on Thursday to find himself surrounded. The banner at the door welcomed Steelers fans, the women behind the front desk were wearing Steelers jerseys and a busload of Pittsburghers were filing off their charter and into the lobby.

"Come on. Aren't hotels supposed to be neutral?" said Bearce, laughing.

Not only have Detroiters jumped on the Steeler bandwagon because native son Jerome Bettis came home to receive the key to the city, southern Michigan is heavy with transplanted Pittsburghers who maintain ties with their relatives.

That point was not lost on Casey Bricker, a native of Seattle who works at the M1A1 tank manufacturing plant in Warren, Mich. She and her son, James, wore their Seattle gear to yesterday's festivities and conceded being in the minority as they rode the elevated train that serves downtown commuters.

"The people mover was a sea of black and gold," she said. "I just wish the news would be a bit more two-sided. I can pick up any paper and find The Bus schedule everywhere. I looked on the internet and couldn't find anything about Seattle's schedule."

Make no mistake. Seattle fans are euphoric about being in the big game for the first time in the 30-year history of the franchise. They want to win, but the big difference between the two camps is, the Steelers need to win. If they had to, their following would have set out on foot.

There is no limit on the fervor that surrounds the Steelers.

Penguins rookie Sidney Crosby, upon being named the star of a recent home game, twirled a Terrible Towel during his curtain call. Newly acquired Pirates first baseman Sean Casey signed autographs at PirateFest wearing his Steelers sweatshirt.

The cultured crowd at the Pittsburgh Public theater has been greeted by the site of Terrible Towels in the lobby, but so have patrons of strip clubs.

The fever extends into church. At the Third Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh this morning, organist Charles Heaton will play as his postlude the notes that belt out "Here We Go, Steelers."

Blessedly, the countdown to the 6:22 p.m. kickoff is being measured in hours now, not days or weeks or years.

The ramp-up has been a study in Americana. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue refers to the Super Bowl as America's unofficial mid-winter holiday, with a worldwide audience of 1 billion viewers tuning in. From Detroit, it has felt more like Roman Bacchanalia meets Thunderome: two teams enter, one team wins.

Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette
Steelers fans post in front of a huge picture of Jerome Bettis at the NFL Experience at the Cobo Conference & Exhibition Center in downtown Detroit yesterday.
Celebrities and corporate movers-and-shakers have gathered to sip Cristol champagne and munch on yak steak at $50 a plate. At the same time, Detroit officials are luring homeless people off the streets with the promise of a meal and a place to catch the game on TV.

The media center has been ground zero for the big party. In the course of a week, anyone with a media credential could have pulled up a chair in an interview room and asked questions of the mayor, the governor, racing mogul Roger Penske, the coaches and players of both teams, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Aaron Neville, Dr. John and The Rolling Stones, who will be providing the halftime entertainment.

Mick Jagger conceded he didn't know much about American football, but his Super Bowl memory involved the Steelers.

"I remember Lynn Swann ... the levitated leap," Jagger said at the most heavily attended media function of the week.

Detroit opened its arms to visitors, aiming to reintroduce them to the city by throwing a winter party. At the same time, the Super Bowl was put on level one alert status by the Department of Homeland Security. NORAD fighter jets will provide air cover and enforce a no-fly zone within a 10-mile radius of Ford Field. In addition, 10,000 federal, state, local and private security officers patrol the ground and the Coast Guard cruises the Detroit River. Talk about playing dee-fense.

With the help of some Western Pennsylvania interests, the U.S. Army is providing some high-tech assistance. Robots that can look under vehicles for potential bombs are part of the milieu. The gadgets were provided by Kuchera Defense Systems of Windber, Pa., and were introduced to the NFL by FirstLink, a Department of Defense Center for National Excellence located at University of Pittsburgh.

One who has an insight on why people would drive five hours to watch a game on TV is Steelers defensive back Mike Logan, who played for McKeesport High School, West Virginia University and the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars before signing with the Steelers as a free agent in 2001.

He has 15 game tickets for the family and friends, but there will be at least that number driving to Detroit just to be here.

"They just want to share in the experience with us. We have a great fan base, and they travel well with us. You can't say enough about them. When you go into an opposing stadium and you see 10,000 Terrible Towels swinging, it just signifies what we're about -- hard working people. Some of my family members saved up money just to be here, to share in this experience with us, to make it a special event," Logan said.

"Pittsburgh has been gearing up for this moment for so long. I think this is a special moment, not just for this team, but for the whole city and the whole organization."

Logan grew up idolizing the Steelers. Pickup football games were played at 6C Rivers Stadium, which was his old apartment number in a McKeesport housing project. He used to wear a No. 12 jersey while his buddies wore Nos. 88 and 82.

"It wasn't one of them authentic jerseys, either. I just had one of them black and white shirts from Hills with No. 12 painted on it," Logan recalled, laughing. "There we were, pretending to be Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann and John Stallworth. We used to try to re-enact the Immaculate Reception and Swann's catch in the Super Bowl. We wanted to emulate the Pittsburgh Steelers."

What's more, Logan's grandfather once worked at the Jones & Laughlin Steel Mill on the South Side, the very reclaimed site where the Steelers now practice.

"I would never try to take away from Jerome's story. But in the little paragraphs, I have my own little story brewing. This is a special time for me," Logan said. "I would be cheating myself if I tried to put into words how I feel. It's almost too good to be true."

But a dream needs a happy ending to avoid becoming a nightmare, and the Steelers know it. It's game time.

"After the Denver game, I was almost overcome with emotion," Logan said. "But we have a game on Sunday, and we have to finish it off the right way."

The psyche of a city -- the psyche of a Nation -- depends on it.

Game's third team upstaged Steelers, Hawks
By Michael Smith
ESPN.com
Archive

DETROIT -- Three weeks ago, after the Steelers held on to upset Indianapolis, Joey Porter was unhappy about the overturning of Troy Polamalu's fourth-quarter interception that could have sealed the win much earlier. Believing that deep down the league preferred Peyton Manning and the Colts to win, Porter publicly criticized the game officials, asking them not to "take the game from us."

Well, the Steelers can call it even now, as the officials who performed well enough throughout the season to earn the privilege of working Super Bowl XL performed Sunday as though they were trying to make it up to the Steelers by giving them the game -- not just any game, but the biggest game. And, yes, this time the other guys, the Seahawks, cried conspiracy, only not quite as loudly as Porter.

"You know, that's what happens when the world is against you," one Seahawk said after the 21-10 loss at Ford/Heinz Field. "No one wanted us to win. They wanted Jerome Bettis to win and go out a hero, and they got it."

Seattle had its share of goats: in particular, tight end Jerramy Stevens, who dropped four balls, and kicker Josh Brown, who missed two field-goal attempts. Almost to a man, the Seahawks pointed the blame finger at themselves for converting only one of three red zone attempts (when they had been the best in the league in that area, scoring a touchdown on 71.7 percent of their trips inside the 20-yard line); for allowing Ben Roethlisberger to improvise and complete a 37-yard pass to game MVP Hines Ward to the 1; for giving up a 75-yard touchdown run to Willie Parker; and for getting beaten by a trick play on Antwaan Randle El's pass to fellow receiver Ward for a touchdown, a first in Super Bowl history. If you read between the lines, though, they pretty much spelled out in bold letters that they had plenty of help in handing Pittsburgh its fifth Lombardi Trophy.

Namely, the boys in black and white.

"Those things are out of our control," Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said of the three major penalties that helped change the game completely. Not saying the outcome of the game would have been any different, but for sure it would have been a different game. "That's the way [the officials] called them," Hasselbeck continued. "The Steelers played well enough to win tonight, and we didn't. They should get credit. It's disappointing, it's hard, but what are you going to do?"

Here's what referee Bill Leavy's crew did, point blank: It robbed Seattle. The Seahawks could have played better, sure. They could have done more to overcome the poor officiating. We understand that those things happen and all, but even with all the points Seattle left on the field, there's a good chance the Seahawks would have scored more than the Steelers if the officials had let the players play.

In the biggest game of the year, the biggest game in sports, even, the officials were just a little too visible. In that regard, the Super Bowl provided a fitting conclusion to a postseason packed with pitiful performances by the game's third team. There were incorrect down-by-contact rulings in both NFC wild-card games; a touchdown that could have gone either way and should have gone the other way -- in favor of Tampa Bay -- in the Bucs' loss to the Redskins; the Patriots got no love in Denver in being hit with a bogus pass interference penalty and not catching a break on Champ Bailey's fumble at the goal line that looked as though it could have been a touchback; and, of course, the Polamalu play.

Still, what happened to the Seahawks wasn't the same as, say, New England going into Denver and playing badly (five turnovers) on top of the bad calls. Seattle gained almost 400 yards and turned it over just once.

You see, you can spend weeks -- and we did; two, in fact -- analyzing and dissecting matchups and giving each team the edge in certain areas and trying to figure out how the game is going to play out, but the two things you can't account for are turnovers and officials. The latter were the X-factor Sunday. Edge: Steelers.

It actually was a fairly clean game from a penalty standpoint, without a whole lot of yellow on the field -- 10 accepted penalties between the teams. Seven were against the Seahawks, though, a team that tied with Indianapolis for the second-fewest penalties (94) in the regular season. But those calls against the Seahawks stuck out like the Space Needle on the Seattle skyline.

Consider: The Seahawks lost 161 yards to penalties when you combine the penalty yards (70) and the plays the flags wiped out (91). By halftime alone, when it trailed 7-3, Seattle had had 73 hard-earned yards and a touchdown eliminated.

Hasselbeck hit Darrell Jackson with an apparent 16-yard scoring pass in the first quarter, but the play came back when Jackson was called for offensive pass interference. It was a touch foul. Jackson extended his arm, yes, but both players were fighting for position, and he didn't create any separation by doing so. It was like a referee calling a hand-check in a key moment of Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

The Seahawks had to settle for three instead of seven.

Still, that was early, and that one didn't change the game as much as did a holding call against Sean Locklear early in the fourth quarter with Pittsburgh leading 14-10. That one wiped out an 18-yard catch by Stevens that would have taken the ball to the 1. Locklear supposedly held Clark Haggans, so instead of first-and-goal at the 1 and the chance to complete a 98-yard touchdown drive and take a three-point lead, Seattle faced first-and-20 at the 29.

Three plays later, Ike Taylor picked off a Hasselbeck pass, and Hasselbeck went low to make the tackle on Taylor's return and was called for a 15-yard personal foul for a low block. The Steelers set up shop at their 44. That one right there made no sense.

Pittsburgh likes to run its trick plays in the middle of the field. Boom! Four plays later, from Seattle's 43, Randle El took a reverse and threw a sweet strike on the run to Ward. It was 21-10, and that was all she wrote. Everyone knows how important it is to play Pittsburgh with a lead or with the score tied. The Steelers don't lose when they're up by 11.

Eleven just so happens to be the total points taken away by bogus calls. Some penalties meant points; others meant field position. A holding call in the second quarter negated Peter Warrick's 34-yard punt return that would have started Seattle in Pittsburgh territory.

By contrast, the Steelers might have gotten a break on Roethlisberger's 1-yard touchdown plunge on third-and-goal in the second quarter. Leavy reviewed the play under the booth's orders, since it occurred inside the two-minute mark, and while still photos of an airborne Roethlisberger showed that the ball might have broken the plane of the goal line, he landed short of it and reached the ball over. It was close. Head linesman Mark Hittner didn't seem so sure of it, hesitating before signaling touchdown.

"I don't think he scored," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said.

It was that kind of evening for the Seahawks, who represent a town where residents know all too well that when it rains, it pours. If having what seemed like 90 percent of the 68,200 in attendance waving Terrible Towels wasn't enough to make Seattle feel as though it was playing on the road, the officials called it as though the Seahawks actually were.

Pittsburgh capitalized on its opportunities. And guys like Bill Cowher, Ward, Dan Rooney and The Bus are all very deserving of a championship -- and it's nice to see them win one -- but it would have been better had it not happened like this. It's like the Seahawks said: Not taking anything away from the Steelers, but keep it real.

"We had a touchdown taken away from us, the first one we scored," said Hasselbeck, who was measured in his words but clear in his frustration, "and then we had the ball at the 1-yard line, they called a penalty on us. That was unfortunate."

"I thought they were offside [on the play Locklear was called for holding]," center Robbie Tobeck said. "I thought we had a free play on because they had two guys come across. You know, that's the game. In a game, there's situations you have to overcome, and all night long we didn't do a good job of overcoming those things, and that's something we've done all year."

In the offseason, 31 teams will be back at the drawing board, evaluating what they need to do to knock off the Steelers in the fall. After the postseason they just had, Mike Pereira and the NFL's crew of officials would be wise to take a long, hard look at themselves. It's a real shame when, on the game's biggest stage, the major players aren't players at all. We saw too much of the third team in Super Bowl XL and not enough Seahawks and Steelers.

puppy bowl: 10++++++++!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but then i suppose i would

xpost!!!!

(I watched the first 20 minutes in the vain hope that it would transform into something watchable, as if they had the REAL Puppy Bowl just waiting around the corner. I switched back later for the kitty halftime show but it turned out to be more of the same horseshit, except with disco music instead of Starbucks bluegrass. I have cats, I can just fuck around with them whenever I want.)

(I probably deserved this, as I read the Directv info box description beforehand and elected to believe it wasn't meant to be read literally [it was]. There were only two words: "Puppies play".)

Yrs,
GBNB

This doesn't even make sense. Turn off the delusional Seattle fans network, dude.

I really, really don't get the big hard on everyone has this year ("this year" etc) for announcing every. single. game. the "worst officiated game ever." mostly everyone on thread OTM upthread about how if Seattle wanted to win they shoulda paid attention to the REAL clock and the REAL 75 td runs instead of the REAL score or the REAL penalties/calls???? Rofflesberger looked in to me; I mean he def threw up chalk so it was just a matter of when his knee hit. The Hasselbeck call was crap, true.

uh xpost

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20020207/chiefseattle07.jpg

Roethlisberger to shave beard for money on 'Late Show'

...

1) Kimo von Oelhoffen cost the Bengals a clear SB victory and should therefore be suspended by the league and possibly jailed.

2) Tom Brady would have never been called for a 15-yard blocking penalty in the SB which is why he has three rings and Hasselbeck has none.

3) If Peyton Manning was the Steelers QB then they would have been ahead 41-3 at the half and nobody would be talking about the questionable officiating because GREBTNESS doesn't require a CHICKENSHIT assist from the officials, etc.

Which is, like, a td + go for 2 + field goal, wtf?

But perhaps Seattle brought this on themselves by coming out of the tunnel to The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony." Note to the Seahawks: That's probably not the best choice of pump-up tunes. Next time, why not just play Beck's "Loser"?

I'm not griping about the officiating because I'm a Seahawk fan, or a Steeler hater, but because I was hoping for a good, close, exciting game, and if the "breaks" were not so lopsided, we would've probably got one. The offensive PI call, and the Roethlisberger "TD" call could've gone either way (and I have few doubts that the Steelers would've punched it in on 4th down anyways). The two holding penalties --- I'll watch again tonight, but nobody disagrees with how badly the officials missed the Hassellback "chop" (I have more doubts that Randel-El's TD pass would have necessarily been called, or been as successful if that 15yrd penalty had not been called).

xpost

You did get a fairly good, well played game, you just didn't get a close score. Tom Brady woulda scored 73 points to make up for "worst officiating ever".

Actually, the ref's first instinct looked like he called it down before the end-zone.

He still signaled touchdown. He NEVER signalled down at any point.

Not only that, replay shows the ball threw up chalk. Which means it did, in no uncertain terms, break the plane--so the ref was correct about that to begin with. So now you're talking about a replay judgement call as to whether or not the ball broke the plane BEFORE Roethlisberger's knee went down, or afterwards. It appeared to me, as it did to the refs, that it was not 100% certain, but certainly nowhere near any kind of evidence that the ball DIDN'T pass the plane before his knee was down.

And that is how the rules work. People can piss and moan all they like, and they'd be right to bitch about the Hasselbeck block, but the bottom line is that Seattle got sonned in a Bettis beef and if they deserved to win the game, they would've won it.

Is this really that hard for people to get? See also: The Pitt/Indy game where, by all appearances, the refs stopped just short of just SHOOTING Pitt players on the field.

THEM BONES

...if they deserved to win the game, they would've won it.

I don't know what that means.

Anyway let's all be honest here. Thread connections reveal all:
# The real reason the Seahawks lost (28 new answers)
# Gareth (6 new answers)

Yep.

HIGH FIVE

# the 'fuck you' e-mail
# The real reason the Seahawks lost

AHAHAHAHKAHAHGHAHFH I AM DYING

btw, what with the 108 new-ball-on-every-play deal? How many drops from the o and d of both sides? Its like they laced the things with Crisco (and which made that low catch by Ward(?) for a first down more impressive).

http://www.footbec.com/dragon_logo_final.jpg

if they had been tossing around slugs, there's no question which team would have won

I think every time from now on a team plays crap all of a sudden in the playoffs in exactly the manner you'd expect them to but thought they wouldn't, nay, couldn't, we should call it the Jake Plummer Memorial Redux. Because it doesn't have the same ring as the Peyton Manning Special Move.

They were mere pawns in my $ grab. Mercenaries to be used up and discarded.

Goodbye Pittsburgh, my Babylon.

I kind of want Holmgren's phone number so I can let him know that the refs didn't make him and his qb manage the game clock like they were playing in the Puppy Bowl. Someone give me a good reason why I shouldn't spend my evening tonight accomplishing this goal?

http://www.lynetteeklund.com/Bartles%20and%20James%20Parrot.jpg

(xp)

mookie, you are to be pitied for one day the Browns will rise up and...(transmission ends)

I've convinced myself, phone calls all around!!

the steve spurrier experiment was terrible.

basically we need more juggaloos calling the plays

not unless you wanna see shaun alexander get shot or shanked with a hatchet.

daver otm re: both moras.

(Of course, we then hired Ray "One and Out" Rhodes and Mike "Inexplicably High Winning Percentage Considering He's Just a Butter Statue" Sherman, and now Mike "Watch Out NFL I Was the Offensive Coordinator for the San Fran-fuckin'-cisco 49ers" McCarthy.)

But virtually all these boring technocrats are better than NBA coaches, who actually have to whine to get any calls at all, which is why the "great" ones are, well, Phil Jackson. What kind of Buddhist does all that wasteful face-contortion crap?

if phil jackson's a "buddhist" then dave raposer is a used-car salesman. just sayin'.

Trying to deposit 100 into various online sports books but getting denied ahhh

I’m all in on SF baby!